Molecular population genetic study of the regulatory systems of the heat shock genes

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The regulatory system of the heat shock genes are not only an attractive model for the study of the regulatory mechanism of transcription in higher organisms, but also an excellent material for studying the adaptive evolution of transcription regulation system. Many molecular knowledge have been accumulated on the regulatory mechanism of transcription of heat shock genes in Drosophila, yeast and humans.Based on these knowledge, we planed to study the adaptive evolution of the regulatory system in the heat shock genes. We planed the following experiments using Drosophila melanogaster as materials : (1) Survey of unknown factors which regulate the transcription of heat shock genes, (2) molecular cloning of the transcription factor, HSF and (3) molecular population genetics of genetic variation within and between the Drosophila species. We also studied the theoretical aspects of molecular evolution of maltigene families including heat shock genes. We obtained the following results : (1) We established about 4000 enhancer trap strains using P transposon. We surveyed mutant strains under the heat and cold shock treatment. We obtained about 10 such straing and continuing searching. (2) We cloned four HSF gene clones from Drosophila genomic library. We are now analyzing the molecular structure of these clones. (3) We sequenced PCR products of HSF for several populations of Drosophila melanogaster and other sibling species. We obtained some of the results but not completed. For the theoretical study, we did computer simulation and studied the polymorphic level of multigenes at various population sizes including the effects of mutations, unequal crossing overs, genetic drift and natural selection.