The RGS gene loco is essential for male reproductive system differentiation in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

BackgroundThe loco gene encodes several different isoforms of a regulator of G-protein signalling. These different isoforms of LOCO are part of a pathway enabling cells to respond to external signals. LOCO is known to be required at various developmental stages including neuroblast division, glial cell formation and oogenesis. Less is known about LOCO and its involvement in male development therefore to gain further insight into the role of LOCO in development we carried out a genetic screen and analysed males with reduced fertility.ResultsWe identified a number of lethal loco mutants and four semi-lethal lines, which generate males with reduced fertility. We have identified a fifth loco transcript and show that it is differentially expressed in developing pupae. We have characterised the expression pattern of all loco transcripts during pupal development in the adult testes, both in wild type and loco mutant strains. In addition we also show that there are various G-protein α subunits expressed in the testis all of which may be potential binding partners of LOCO.ConclusionWe propose that the male sterility in the new loco mutants result from a failure of accurate morphogenesis of the adult reproductive system during metamorphosis, we propose that this is due to a loss of expression of loco c3. Thus, we conclude that specific isoforms of loco are required for the differentiation of the male gonad and genital disc.

Regulation of longevity by regulator of G-protein signaling protein, Loco

“…As it was reported that reduced fertility extends the lifespan of fruit flies (Partridge & Farquhar, 1981; Fowler & Partridge, 1989), we measured fertility of wild‐type and loco P283 heterozygous flies. The fertility, calculated as adult/egg number, was similar in both types (data not shown), consistent with a previous report showing that heterozygous loss of loco did not affect fertility (McGurk et al. , 2008).…”

“…, 2005; Kaplow et al. , 2008; McGurk et al. , 2008), a fine‐tuning of loco gene expression will be critical for the regulation of longevity.…”

Loco signaling pathway in longevity

“…Considering that Loco is required at various developmental stages, including as neuroblast division, glial differentiation, blood-brain barrier formation and reproductive systems, 14,15,17,[29][30][31] the changes of loco expression during embryonic development may cause detrimental consequences, such as lethality of loco homozygous mutant flies. 17,31 Future studies that investigate adult-specific regulation of loco expression will reveal more levels are reduced.…”

“…17,31 Future studies that investigate adult-specific regulation of loco expression will reveal more levels are reduced. An alternative potential mechanism by which Loco inhibits Ras•GTP is to convert Ras•GTP into Ras•GDP by the GAP activity mediated through the RGS domain, as similarly occurs in the regulation of inhibitory Gαi•GTP protein.…”

SLI-1 Cbl Inhibits the Engulfment of Apoptotic Cells in C. elegans through a Ligase-Independent Function

“…The WRC is composed of five proteins in C. elegans : WVE-1, GEX-2, GEX-3, ABI-1 and NUO-3. Soto et al (2002) [17] and Patel et al (2008) [18] presented evidence that suggested that GEX-2 and WVE-1, respectively, promote engulfment. Our genetic analysis, however, demonstrated that the CED-10 Rac pathway and ABI-1 act at least partially independently of each other.…”