Structure of the smallest salivary-gland secretory protein gene in Chironomus tentans

Silks produced by insect labial glands

Insect silks are secreted from diverse gland types; this chapter deals with the silks produced by labial glands of Holometabola (insects with pupa in their life cycle). Labial silk glands are composed of a few tens or hundreds of large polyploid cells that secrete polymerizing proteins which are stored in the gland lumen as a semi-liquid gel. Polymerization is based on weak molecular interactions between repetitive amino acid motifs present in one or more silk proteins; cross-linking by disulfide bonds may be important in the silks spun under water. The mechanism of long-term storage of the silk dope inside the glands and its conversion into the silk fiber during spinning is not fully understood. The conversion occurs within seconds at ambient temperature and pressure, under minimal drawing force and in some cases under water. The silk filament is largely built of proteins called fibroins and in Lepidoptera and Trichoptera coated by glue-type proteins known as sericins. Silks often contain small amounts of additional proteins of poorly known function. The silk components controlling dope storage and filament formation seem to be conserved at the level of orders, while the nature of polymerizing motifs in the fibroins, which determine the physical properties of silk, differ at the level of family and even genus. Most silks are based on fibroin beta-sheets interrupted with other structures such as alpha-helices but the silk proteins of certain sawflies have predominantly a collagen-like or polyglycine II arrangement and the silks of social Hymenoptera are formed from proteins in a coiled coil arrangement.

Centromeric polymerase III transcription units in Chironomus pallidivittatus

Cp1 is a polymorphic short interspersed repeat (SINE) which is distributed over the whole genome of the dipteran Chironomus pallidivittatus, and is particularly abundant in the centromeres. It contains two different sequence modules, one of which, the B module, has a polymerase III internal control region (ICR) typical for tRNA genes (A and B box). Such sequence motifs are common in SINEs and assumed to function in RNA-mediated transposition. In the present case, however, several structural features speak for another role. An investigation of the transcription of the B module shows that it encodes a 99 nt RNA species in vivo, Cp1-RNA, terminating within the module. The transcription unit is likely to have evolved from a pre-tRNA gene and the transcript has sequence similarities to non-processed pre-tRNA. Most of the in vitro transcription is eliminated by deletion or substitution mutation of an upstream TATA box, present within the B module, as well as by changing either the A or B box. The properties of the transcript suggest that it does not have a role in transposition but may have some other function, perhaps in the centromere.

A cell-specific glycosylated silk protein from Chironomus thummi salivary glands. Cloning, chromosomal localization, and characterization of cDNA

Chironomid salivary glands contain 40 cells dedicated to the synthesis of a relatively small ensemble of silk proteins. Glands in some species contain a special lobe composed of 4 cells distinguishable from the others. We have cloned a special lobe-specific cDNA from Chironomus thummi salivary glands. Northern blots of salivary gland RNA demonstrated that the cDNA hybridizes to a 2.5-kilobase transcript present only in the special lobe. In situ hybridization mapped the gene encoding this cDNA to region A2b on polytene chromosome IV, the locus of the special lobe-specific Balbiani ring a. The deduced amino acid sequence encodes a protein with a calculated molecular mass of 77 kDa and numerous potential glycosylation sites; it appears unrelated to other known chironomid silk proteins. Polyclonal antibody, raised against a cDNA-encoded fusion protein, reacted exclusively with a special lobe-specific 160-kDa silk protein. Lectin binding studies indicate that the immunoreactive 160-kDa protein contains both N- and O-linked glycan moieties. We conclude that glycosylation most likely contributes to the difference between calculated and apparent molecular masses and that this cDNA encodes the special lobe-specific silk protein previously described as ssp160 (Kolesnikov, N. N., Karakin, E. I., Sebeleva, T. E., Meyer, L., and Serfling, E. (1981) Chromosoma 83, 661-677).