The Spooky Protein That Regulates Gene Expression In Flies

Insects need carefully controlled amounts of steroid hormone to molt, and the “Ouija Board” protein plays an important role in this process.

AsianScientist (Feb. 23, 2016) – A research group in Japan has discovered a new protein—creatively named “Ouija Board” (Ouib)—that plays an important role in the biosynthesis of the steroid hormones necessary for molting in insects. Their findings were published in PLOS Genetics.

Steroid hormones are biologically active substances that play important roles in development, sexual maturation and maintaining homeostasis, the normal function of the body’s systems, regardless of species. Steroid hormones are biosynthesized from cholesterol in specific endocrine organs via multi-step enzymatic reactions.

It is important that the gene groups that provide instructions for these enzymes are expressed in limited forms in the organs where biosynthesis takes place. While progress has been made on research in vertebrates, not much is known about the mechanism controlling limited gene expression in the steroidogenic organs of invertebrates.

In a joint study with the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, University of Tsukuba Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences Associate Professor Ryusuke Niwa studied the expression of the enzyme genes required for biosynthesis of steroid hormones in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster.

Using a luciferase reporter assay, Niwa and his team discovered Ouib, a transcription factor that regulates the expression of the hormone synthesizing enzyme known as spookier. Interestingly, spookier was the only gene shown to be regulated by Ouib out of the many biosynthetic enzyme genes in flies, and Ouib exists only in the fly family of insects. These results strongly suggest that fruit flies have a special regulatory mechanism that controls a single enzyme gene.

While this study has provided new knowledge about the mechanism for animal steroid hormone biosynthesis and its evolution, it could also lead to the development of ideas for the development of more environmentally-friendly agrochemicals that act only on insects, the researchers say.

The article can be found at: Komura-Kawa et al. (2015) The Drosophila Zinc Finger Transcription Factor Ouija Board Controls Ecdysteroid Biosynthesis through Specific Regulation of spookier.

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Source: University of Tsukuba.
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