OVERLAPPING TRANSCRIPTION UNITS IN THE DOPA DECARBOXYLASE REGION OF DROSOPHILA
OVERLAPPING TRANSCRIPTION UNITS IN THE DOPA DECARBOXYLASE REGION OF DROSOPHILA
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DOI：
10.1038/322279a0
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发表时间：
1986-07-17
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
HODGETTS, RB
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
SPENCER, CA;GIETZ, RD;HODGETTS, RB
The many examples of overlap in the genes of various viruses and bacteria illustrate that the parsimonious utilization of the coding capacity of DNA is relatively common amongst prokaryotes (for review, see ref. 1). The recent discovery of a pupal cuticle gene within an intron of the completely unrelatedGartlocus inDrosophila2shows that overlapping transcription units also exist in higher organisms. However, the prevalence of such phenomena is unknown. We report here a quite different situation of overlap between the 3′ termini of a pair of convergent transcription units in another region of theDrosophilagenome. This 88-base-pair (bp) genomic region encodes the 3′ terminus of the messenger RNA for the enzyme dopa decarboxylase (Ddc) and, in opposite orientation, the 3′ terminus of the adjacent gene whose function is unknown. An analysis of the temporal and spatial distribution of the two transcripts within the organism shows that high levels of both transcripts are never concordant. However, within the testes, where the 3′ transcript is maximally expressed, low levels ofDdctranscript were detected. This result raises the possibility that a hybrid molecule involving the two transcripts formsin vivoor that transcription interference occurs, with concomitant regulatory implications.
