Molecular cloning of the Drosophila virilis larval glue protein gene Lgp-3 and its comparative analysis with other Drosophila glue protein genes

Drosophila Glue: A Promising Model for Bioadhesion

The glue produced by Drosophila larvae to attach themselves to a substrate for several days and resist predation until the end of metamorphosis represents an attractive model to develop new adhesives for dry environments. The adhesive properties of this interesting material have been investigated recently, and it was found that it binds as well as strongly adhesive commercial tapes to various types of substrates. This glue hardens rapidly after excretion and is made of several proteins. In D. melanogaster, eight glue proteins have been identified: four are long glycosylated mucoproteins containing repeats rich in prolines, serines and threonines, and four others are shorter proteins rich in cysteines. This protein mix is produced by the salivary glands through a complex packaging process that is starting to be elucidated. Drosophila species have adapted to stick to various substrates in diverse environmental conditions and glue genes appear to evolve rapidly in terms of gene number, number of repeats and sequence of the repeat motifs. Interestingly, besides its adhesive properties, the glue may also have antimicrobial activities. We discuss future perspectives and avenues of research for the development of new bioadhesives mimicking Drosophila fly glue.

It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature: Functional Materials in Insects

Over the course of their wildly successful proliferation across the earth, the insects as a taxon have evolved enviable adaptations to their diverse habitats, which include adhesives, locomotor systems, hydrophobic surfaces, and sensors and actuators that transduce mechanical, acoustic, optical, thermal, and chemical signals. Insect-inspired designs currently appear in a range of contexts, including antireflective coatings, optical displays, and computing algorithms. However, as over one million distinct and highly specialized species of insects have colonized nearly all habitable regions on the planet, they still provide a largely untapped pool of unique problem-solving strategies. With the intent of providing materials scientists and engineers with a muse for the next generation of bioinspired materials, here, a selection of some of the most spectacular adaptations that insects have evolved is assembled and organized by function. The insects presented display dazzling optical properties as a result of natural photonic crystals, precise hierarchical patterns that span length scales from nanometers to millimeters, and formidable defense mechanisms that deploy an arsenal of chemical weaponry. Successful mimicry of these adaptations may facilitate technological solutions to as wide a range of problems as they solve in the insects that originated them.

Proteinaceous adhesive secretions from insects, and in particular the egg attachment glue of Opodiphthera sp. moths

Biochemical and electrophoretic screening of 29 adhesive secretions from Australian insects identified six types that appeared to consist largely of protein. Most were involved in terrestrial egg attachment. Hydrogel glues were subjected to gravimetric analyses and assessed for overall amino acid composition. When 32 proteins in glues from eight insect species were analyzed individually, many proved to be rich in Gly, Ser, and/or Pro, and some contained substantial levels of 4-hydroxyproline. A few proteins were heavily glycosylated. Abundant protein-based secretions were tested as adhesives, mainly by measuring dry shear strength on wood. The strongest (1-2 MPa) was an egg attachment glue produced by saturniid gum moths of the genus Opodiphthera. It was harvested from female colleterial gland reservoirs as a treacle-like liquid that underwent irreversible gelation, and recovered from the capsules of laid eggs as a highly elastic orange-brown hydrogel that could also display high tack. Its protein-based nature was confirmed and explored by spectroscopy, enzymatic degradation, and 2D gel electrophoresis. Its proteins are mostly 80-95 kDa, and sequences (almost all novel) were established for 23 tryptic peptides. Scanning probe microscopy of Opodiphthera hydrogel in water returned median values of 0.83 nN for adhesion, 63 kPa for modulus, and 87% for resilience. Recombinant mimics of this material might be useful as biodegradable commodity adhesives or as specialty biomedical products.

Trans-splicing of the mod(mdg4) complex locus is conserved between the distantly related species Drosophila melanogaster and D. virilis

The modifier of mdg4, mod(mdg4), locus in Drosophila melanogaster represents a new type of complex gene in which functional diversity is resolved by mRNA trans-splicing. A protein family of >30 transcriptional regulators, which are supposed to be involved in higher-order chromatin structure, is encoded by both DNA strands of this locus. Mutations in mod(mdg4) have been identified independently in a number of genetic screens involving position-effect variegation, modulation of chromatin insulators, apoptosis, pathfinding of nerve cells, and chromosome pairing, indicating pleiotropic effects. The unusual gene structure and mRNA trans-splicing are evolutionary conserved in the distantly related species Drosophila virilis. Chimeric mod(mdg4) transcripts encoded from nonhomologous chromosomes containing the splice donor from D. virilis and the acceptor from D. melanogaster are produced in transgenic flies. We demonstrate that a significant amount of protein can be produced from these chimeric mRNAs. The evolutionary and functional conservation of mod(mdg4) and mRNA trans-splicing in both Drosophila species is furthermore demonstrated by the ability of D. virilis mod(mdg4) transgenes to rescue recessive lethality of mod(mdg4) mutant alleles in D. melanogaster.

A Kunitz type protease inhibitor related protein is synthesized in Drosophila prepupal salivary glands and released into the moulting fluid during pupation

From the Drosophila virilis late puff region 31C, we microcloned two neighbouring genes, Kil-1 and Kil-2, that encode putative Kunitz serine protease inhibitor like proteins. The Kil-1 gene is expressed exclusively in prepupal salivary glands. Using a size mutant of the KIL-1 protein and MALDI-TOF analysis, we demonstrate that during pupation this protein is released from the prepupal salivary glands into the pupation fluid covering the surface of the pupa. 3-D-structure predictions are consistent with the known crystal structure of the human Kunitz type protease inhibitor 2KNT. This is the first experimental proof for the extracorporal presence of a distinct Drosophila prepupal salivary gland protein. Possible functions of KIL-1 in the context of the control of proteolytic activities in the pupation fluid are discussed.

Evolution of the trans-splicing Drosophila locus mod(mdg4) in several species of Diptera and Lepidoptera

The modifier of mdg4 (mod[mdg4]) locus of Drosophila melanogaster (Dme) encodes chromatin proteins which are involved in position effect variegation, establishment of chromatin boundaries, nerve pathfinding, meiotic chromosome pairing and apoptosis. It was recently shown that mRNA trans-splicing is involved in the generation of at least 26 different mod(mdg4) transcripts. Here, we show that a similar complex mod(mdg4) locus exists in Drosophila pseudoobscura (Dps), Drosophila virilis (Dvi), Anopheles gambiae (Aga) and Bombyx mori (Bmo). As in D. melanogaster, most isoforms of these species contain a strongly conserved BTB/POZ domain (hereafter referred to as BTB domain) within the common N-terminal part and a Cys(2)His(2) motif containing FLYWCH domain within the isoform-specific C-terminal parts. By sequence comparison, we identified six novel isoforms in D. melanogaster and show that altogether 31 isoforms are perfectly conserved by sequence and position in the mod(mdg4) locus of the Drosophila species analyzed. We found significant differences in evolutionary speed of synonymous/nonsynonymous divergence between the various isoform specific exons. These results were extended by tree reconstruction analysis based on the evolved FLYWCH domains of predicted Mod(mdg4) proteins in Drosophila and Anopheles. Comparative analysis of mod(mdg4) gene structure in species of dipterans implicates that several internal inversions occurred making the mRNA trans-splicing mechanism indispensable for mod(mdg4) expression. Finally, we propose a model for the evolution of trans-splicing implementing effective regulation of many alternative gene products in a composite gene structure.

Ecdysone-controlled mRNA stability in Drosophila salivary glands: deadenylation-independent degradation of larval glue protein gene message during the larval/prepupal transition

20-Hydroxyecdysone induces poly(A) shortening and the subsequent degradation of transcripts encoding the larval glue protein LGP-1 in Drosophila virilis late third larval instar salivary glands. Degradation concurs with the transient increase of ribonucleolytic activities in the gland cells. In vitro nuclease assays using crude cytoplasmic extracts of ecdysone-treated salivary glands demonstrate degradation to be deadenylation-independent and that the induced ribonucleolytic activities initiate the degradation of the Lgp-1 transcripts in putative single-stranded loop regions. The independence of degradation from deadenylation is also found in vivo in transformed D. melanogaster carrying a modified Lgp-1 gene.

Structure and regulation of the salivary gland secretion protein gene Sgs-1 of Drosophila melanogaster

The Drosophila melanogaster gene Sgs-1 belongs to the secretion protein genes, which are coordinately expressed in salivary glands of third instar larvae. Earlier analysis had implied that Sgs-1 is located at the 25B2-3 puff. We cloned Sgs-1 from a YAC covering 25B2-3. Despite using a variety of vectors and Escherichia coli strains, subcloning from the YAC led to deletions within the Sgs-1 coding region. Analysis of clonable and unclonable sequences revealed that Sgs-1 mainly consists of 48-bp tandem repeats encoding a threonine-rich protein. The Sgs-1 inserts from single lambda clones are heterogeneous in length, indicating that repeats are eliminated. By analyzing the expression of Sgs-1/lacZ fusions in transgenic flies, cis-regulatory elements of Sgs-1 were mapped to lie within 1 kb upstream of the transcriptional start site. Band shift assays revealed binding sites for the transcription factor fork head (FKH) and the factor secretion enhancer binding protein 3 (SEBP3) at positions that are functionally relevant. FKH and SEBP3 have been shown previously to be involved in the regulation of Sgs-3 and Sgs-4. Comparison of the levels of steady state RNA and of the transcription rates for Sgs-1 and Sgs-1/lacZ reporter genes indicates that Sgs-1 RNA is 100-fold more stable than Sgs-1/lacZ RNA. This has implications for the model of how Sgs transcripts accumulate in late third instar larvae.

Sequence, molecular organization and products of the Drosophila virilis homologs of the D. melanogaster nested genes lethal(2) tumorous imaginal discs [1(2)tid] and lethal(2) neighbour of tid [1(2)not]

In this study, we describe the isolation of the Drosophila virilis (Dvir) 6201-bp genomic fragment homologous to a 7047-bp genomic region of D. melanogaster (Dmel) that harbors the nested genes lethal(2) tumorous imaginal discs (l(2)tid), lethal(2) neighbour of tid (l(2)not) and lethal(2) relative of tid (l(2)rot). The isolated fragment, which maps at the cytogenetic position 50A5 on chromosome 5, carries the Dvir homologs of the Dmel genes l(2)tid and l(2)not. In both cases, the interspecific comparison of the determined sequences reveals a high homology regarding the protein coding regions and a high degree of evolutionary divergence concerning the intronic parts of the genes. In the two distantly related species, the particular gene within gene arrangement of the two genes is conserved, namely, Dvir tid is located in the intron of Dvir not, on the non-coding DNA strand. Interestingly, the Dvir homolog of the Dmel l(2)rot gene residing in the l(2)not intron on its coding strand, opposite l(2)tid, is not present in the 6201-bp genomic fragment. The protein predicted from the Dvir tid sequence, Dvir Tid58, exhibits 76.5% identity with the putative Tid56 protein of Dmel. The putative Dvir Not58 protein shows 71% identity with its Dmel homolog Not56. The developmental transcript and protein patterns, as well as the characteristics of the protein products encoded by the genes Dvir tid and Dvir not are similar to those identified for their Dmel homologs.