Role of Elongator Subunit Elp3 in Drosophila melanogaster Larval Development and Immunity

Abstract

The Elongator complex has been implicated in several cellular processes, including gene expression and tRNA modification. We investigated the biological importance of the Elp3 gene in Drosophila melanogaster. Deletion of Elp3 results in larval lethality at the pupal stage. During early development, larval growth is dramatically impaired, with progression to the third instar delayed for $24 hr, and pupariation occurring only at day 14 after egg laying. Melanotic nodules appear after 4 days. Microarray analysis shows that stress response genes are induced and ecdysone-induced transcription factors are severely repressed in the mutant. Interestingly, the phenotypes of Elp3 flies are similar to those of flies lacking the domino gene, encoding a SWI/SNF-like ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling enzyme. Indeed, the gene expression profiles of these mutants are also remarkably similar. Together, these data demonstrate that Drosophila Elp3 is essential for viability, normal development, and hematopoiesis and suggest a functional overlap with the chromatin remodeler Domino.

Elongator Protein 3 (Elp3) Lysine Acetyltransferase Is a Tail-anchored Mitochondrial Protein in Toxoplasma gondii

“…Migration and differentiation of mouse cortical neurons was significantly altered when Elp3 was decreased (50). In Drosophila, deletion of Elp3 results in larval lethality (51). In Toxoplasma, we found TgElp3 to be indispensable for parasite viability as the genomic locus could only be disrupted when an ectopic copy of the KAT was present.…”

Elongator, a conserved complex required for wobble uridine modifications in Eukaryotes

“…81 In the fruit fly D. melanogaster, the Elongator complex has been implicated in several processes such as, larval-and neuro-development. 95,96 An explanation for the neurodevelopmental defects in D. melanogaster could be that Elongator complex acetylate Bruchpilot, a protein important for neuronal differentiation. 97 Both in mice and C. elegans, the Elp3p homolog has been implicated in acetylating lysine 40 (K40) in a-tubulin.…”

Splice variants of the SWR1-type nucleosome remodeling factor Domino have distinct functions during Drosophila melanogaster oogenesis

“…Previous genetic analyses characterized dom as required for cell proliferation and viability, homeotic gene regulation and Notch signaling (Eissenberg et al, 2005;Ellis et al, 2015;Gause et al, 2006;Kwon et al, 2013;Lu et al, 2007;Ruhf et al, 2001;Sadasivam and Huang, 2016;Walker et al, 2011), but did not attempt to resolve distinct functions of the two isoforms. dom is essential for fly development (Ruhf et al, 2001) and dom mutants die during pupariation (Braun et al, 1998;Ruhf et al, 2001).…”