RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Natural and laboratory mutations in kuzbanian are associated with heavy metal stress phenotypes in Drosophila melanogaster
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 070243
DO 10.1101/070243
A1 Hung Le Manh
A1 Lain Guio
A1 Miriam Merenciano
A1 Quirze Rovira
A1 Maite G. Barrón
A1 Josefa González
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/08/18/070243.abstract
AB Organisms must cope with altered environmental conditions such as high concentrations of heavy metals. Stress response to heavy metals is mediated by the metal-responsive transcription factor 1 (MTF-1), which is conserved from Drosophila to humans. MTF-1 binds to metal response elements (MREs) and changes the expression of target genes. kuzbanian (kuz), a metalloendopeptidase that activates the evolutionary conserved Notch signaling pathway, has been identified as an MTF-1 target gene. We have previously identified a putatively adaptive transposable element in the Drosophila melanogaster genome, named FBti0019170, inserted in a kuz intron. In this work, we investigated whether laboratory-induced mutations in kuz are associated with zinc stress phenotypes. We found that both embryos and adult flies overexpressing kuz are more tolerant to zinc compared with wild-type flies. On the other hand, we found that the effect of FBti0019170 on zinc stress tolerance depends on developmental stage and genetic background. Moreover, in the majority of the genetic backgrounds analyzed, FBti0019170 has a deleterious effect in unpolluted environments in pre-adult stages. These results highlight the complexity of natural mutations and suggest that besides laboratory-induced mutations natural mutations need to be studied in order to accurately characterize gene function and evolution.