New properties of Drosophila scs and scs' insulators

PLoS One. 2013 Apr 24;8(4):e62690. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062690. Print 2013.

Abstract

Insulators are defined as a class of regulatory elements that delimit independent transcriptional domains within eukaryotic genomes. The first insulators to be identified were scs and scs', which flank the domain including two heat shock 70 genes. Zw5 and BEAF bind to scs and scs', respectively, and are responsible for the interaction between these insulators. Using the regulatory regions of yellow and white reporter genes, we have found that the interaction between scs and scs' improves the enhancer-blocking activity of the weak scs' insulator. The sequences of scs and scs' insulators include the promoters of genes that are strongly active in S2 cells but not in the eyes, in which the enhancer-blocking activity of these insulators has been extensively examined. Only the promoter of the Cad87A gene located at the end of the scs insulator drives white expression in the eyes, and the white enhancer can slightly stimulate this promoter. The scs insulator contains polyadenylation signals that may be important for preventing transcription through the insulator. As shown previously, scs and scs' can insulate transcription of the white transgene from the enhancing effects of the surrounding genome, a phenomenon known as the chromosomal position effect (CPE). After analyzing many independent transgenic lines, we have concluded that transgenes carrying the scs insulator are rarely inserted into genomic regions that stimulate the white reporter expression in the eyes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Animals, Genetically Modified
  • Drosophila / genetics*
  • Drosophila Proteins / genetics
  • Enhancer Elements, Genetic
  • Gene Expression
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Gene Order
  • Genes, Reporter
  • Insulator Elements*
  • Male
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic
  • Transcription Termination, Genetic

Substances

  • Drosophila Proteins

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 12-04-92423-EMBL-a) and grants from the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program of the Russian Academy of Sciences (to OK), the Ministry of Science and Education of the Russian Federation (Project no. 8103), the Government of the Russian Federation (order #220) (to VS), and the President's Stipendy (no. SP-1960.2012.4) (to OM). Experiments were performed using the equipment of IGB RAS facilities supported by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Russian Federation (grant no. 16.552.11.7067). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.