Molecular characterization of the 5′ control region and of two lethal alleles affecting the hsp60 gene in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

The chaperonins are evolutionarily conserved essential cellular proteins that help folding newly synthesized or translocated proteins, spending ATP. We present here the molecular analysis of the hsp60 gene promoter region and of two Drosophila hsp60 ethyl methane sulfonate embryonic lethal alleles that have an identical phenotype. No heat shock element sequences were found in the 5P P region, supporting previous data (Kozlova, T. et al., 1997) which suggests that mitochondrial Drosophila melanogaster HSP60.1 is not heat inducible. By sequencing the lethal allele's entire open reading frame (ORF), we found a C-T transition in the hsp60 F409 allele that produces a serine to leucine change, apparently distorting the protein equatorial domain structure. No changes were found in the hsp60 G93 ORF. However, an analysis of the heterogeneous nuclear RNA levels showed a reduction of the hsp60 transcript in hsp60 G93 flies as compared to the wild-type. These data suggest that although the defects in the hsp60 gene produced by these alleles are at different levels, both behave as null mutations.z 1999 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Hsp60C is required in follicle as well as germline cells during oogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster

“…As expected (Betran et al, 2002), these duplicated genes have acquired distinct functions (Sarkar and Lakhotia, 2005). While the Hsp60A gene seems to be the ubiquitously expressed general chaperonin (Perezgasga et al, 1999), Hsp60B has testisspecific expression and is essential for sperm individualization (Timakov and Zhang, 2001). The Hsp60C gene has been shown to be required for tracheal development and for early stages in spermatogenesis (Sarkar and Lakhotia, 2005), and one of the roles of the Hsp60D gene seems to be in modulation of apoptosis (Arya et al, 2007).…”

Inactivation of the hereditary spastic paraplegia-associated Hspd1 gene encoding the Hsp60 chaperone results in early embryonic lethality in mice

“…Inactivation and mutations have demonstrated that the orthologous genes encoding Hsp60 in E. coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Drosophila melanogaster (Cheng et al 1989;Hemmingsen et al 1988;Perezgasga et al 1999) are essential genes, indicating that Hsp60 plays an important role both in prokaryotic organisms and as a component of the mitochondria in eukaryotes.…”

The Hsp27 gene is not required for Drosophila development but its activity is associated with starvation resistance

“…For example, the Hsp83 gene of Drosophila is required for signal transduction, and loss of its function results in developmental failure (Van Der Straten et al 1997;Rutherford and Lindquist 1998). The mitochondrial Hsp60 gene of Drosophila is essential for fertility, and loss of its activity is detrimental to the fly development (Perezgasga et al 1999). Another gene closely related to the Hsp60 gene, Hsp60B, is required exclusively for Drosophila late spermatogenesis (Timakov and Zhang 2001).…”