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First published online 29 September 2004
doi: 10.1242/dev.01314


Development 131, 5297-5308 (2004)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2004


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Testis-specific TAF homologs collaborate to control a tissue-specific transcription program

Mark Hiller*, Xin Chen, M. Jodeane Pringle, Martin Suchorolski, Yasemin Sancak, Sridhar Viswanathan, Benjamin Bolival, Ting-Yi Lin, Susan Marino and Margaret T. Fuller{dagger}

Departments of Developmental Biology and Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5329, USA



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Fig. 1. Expression of the testis TAF homologs nht, rye, mia and sa. (A) Northern blot of poly(A)+ selected RNA probed sequentially with sequences from the protein coding regions of nht, rye and mia, and with rp49 as loading control. (B) RT-PCR products amplified using primer pairs for sa, its generally expressed Drosophila homolog dTAF8, and rp49 as loading control from Poly(A)+ RNA. In both A and B, RNA was from: wild-type adult males (lane 1), wild-type adult females (lane 2), adult males lacking germline (lane 3), 0- to 24-hour embryos (lane 4). (C-F) nht, rye, sa and mia mRNAs were expressed in primary spermatocytes. In situ hybridization to wild-type whole adult Drosophila testis with single stranded antisense riboprobes: (C) nht, (D) rye, (E) sa, or (F) mia. Arrows indicate the onset of mRNA expression at the start of the primary spermatocyte stage.

 


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Fig. 2. Loss of function of nht arrests mature primary spermatocyte differentiation and lowers expression of spermatid differentiation genes. (A,B) Phase-contrast images of whole testes dissected from (A) wild-type and (B) nht mutant males. Arrows indicate primary spermatocytes; arrowheads, elongated spermatid bundles in wild-type; the bracket in B shows the region of dying spermatocytes in nht. (C-H) In situ hybridization to whole (C,E,G) wild type or (D,F,H) nhtz-5347/Df(2L)A263 mutant testes with anti-sense mRNA probes for (C,D) cyclinB, (E,F) fuzzy onions, (G,H) don juan.

 


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Fig. 3. Bar diagram comparisons and sequence alignments for the nht, rye, mia and sa predicted proteins. In bar diagrams: predicted histone fold domains are red; other conserved regions are blue. In multiple sequence alignments the colours are: yellow, hydrophobic; green, polar + Tyr; purple, charged; red, proline; orange, Phe. Red horizontal bars indicate alpha helices of the HFDs, shown above the alignment for the TAFs and below the alignment for the histones; blue or light blue horizontal bars indicate other conserved regions. (A,B) Structural comparisons of nht protein with TAF4 homologs from yeast to human. dTAF4: generally expressed Drosophila homolog of nht. Sequence alignments (B) show the histone fold domain (HFD) compared to histone H2a, the C-terminal CCTD region, and in between two additional regions with a conserved pattern of polar, charged and hydrophobic residues (dark-blue bars). (C,D) Structural comparisons of rye protein with TAF12 homologs from a range of metazoans. dTAF12: generally expressed Drosophila homolog of rye. Histone fold domain (HFD) also compared to histone H2b in (D). (E,F) Structural comparisons of mia protein with TAF6 homologs from yeast to human. dTAF6: generally expressed Drosophila homolog of mia. Sequence alignments (F) show the histone fold domain (HFD) compared to histone H4. The TAF6 domain is the extended region C-terminal to the HFD with a conserved pattern of polar, charged and hydrophobic residues. In B,D,F, residues with >15% of overall structure exposed (as predicted by DeepView software) in the hTAF4:hTAF12 or dTAF6 and dTAF9 heterodimers, based on their crystal structures (Werten et al., 2002Go; Xie et al., 1996Go) are marked `e'. Residues making heterodimeric bonds between hTAF4 and hTAF12, or between dTAF6 and dTAF9, analyzing all residues of opposing chains within 5 Å, are designated above the sequence alignment by the following symbols: 1 = binding to alpha-1 helix of heterodimer partner; 2 = binding to alpha-2 helix of heterodimer partner; 3 = binding to alpha-3 helix of heterodimer partner; i = forming an acid-base bond with heterodimeric partner. From the crystal structure of the nucleosome (Luger et al., 1997Go), regions of histones that form symmetrical tetrameric bonds are marked with an asterisk; regions of histones forming non-symmetrical tetrameric bonds (H2B-H4) are marked (8). (G,H) Comparisons of sa and TAF8 homologs from yeast to human. The histone fold domain predicted by PFAM family HMMer search is shown as a red bar, and the predicted alpha helices as green cylinders: secondary structure predictions show the helix-loop-helix-loop-helix pattern characteristic of histone fold domains. Significant region of homology just downstream of the predicted HFD marked with a light-blue bar.

 


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Fig. 4. The nht and rye proteins physically interact with each other but not with their generally expressed binding partner homologs TAF12 and TAF4 in a bacterial co-expression and GST pulldown assay. Western blots of total bacterial protein extracts (T) and elutions of glutathione-Sepharose purified protein (B) from strains expressing GST or FLAG-tagged fusion proteins. Blots were probed sequentially with anti-GST or anti-FLAG antibodies. Only proteins that were soluble in the bacterial extracts were able to be assayed for binding to glutathione-Sepharose. Lanes: 1, GST-Nht; 2, FLAG-Rye; 3, GST-Nht and FLAG-Rye; 4, GST-dTAF4 and FLAG-Rye; 5, GST-dTAF4; 6, FLAG-dTAF12; 7, GST-dTAF4 and FLAG-dTAF12; 8, GST-Nht and FLAG-dTAF12. In all cases, bacterial strains expressing a single fusion protein also carried the second vector without a fusion protein insert.

 


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Fig. 5. Testis TAF transcripts accumulate in spermatocytes of testis TAF or aly mutant flies. In situ hybridization to testes using (A-E) can or (F-I) sa probes. (A) Wild type; (B) can3; (C) mia1; (D) sa; (E) aly; (F) can12; (G) sa2; (H) aly2/aly5; (I) topi testes.

 





© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2004