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Organisation and expression of a cluster of yolk protein genes in the Australian sheep blowfly, Lucilia cuprina

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Abstract

The Australian sheep blowfly Lucilia cuprina is a major pest for the Australian and New Zealand sheep industries. With the long-term aim of making a strain of L. cuprina suitable for a genetic control program, we previously developed a tetracycline-repressible female lethal genetic system in Drosophila. A key part of this system is a female-specific promoter from a yolk protein (yp) gene controlling expression of the tetracycline-dependent transactivator (tTA). Here we report the sequence of a 14.2 kb genomic clone from L. cuprina that contains a cluster of three complete yp genes and one partial yp gene. The Lcyp genes are specifically expressed in females that have received a protein meal. A bioinformatic analysis of the promoter of one of the yp genes (LcypA) identified several putative binding sites for DSX, a known regulator of yp gene expression in other Diptera. A transgenic strain of L. cuprina was made that contained the LcypA promoter driving the expression of the Escherichia coli lacZ reporter gene. Transgenic females express high levels of β-galactosidase after a protein meal. Thus the LcypA promoter could be used to obtain female-specific expression of tTA in transgenic L. cuprina.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Phil Batterham for the gift of a L. cuprina genomic DNA phage library and Fred Gould for comments on the manuscript. This research benefited significantly from discussion at regular research co-ordination meetings of the FAO/IAEA co-ordinated research project on “Molecular technologies to improve the effectiveness of the sterile insect technique”. Our research was supported by funding from Massey University and Meat and Wool New Zealand.

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Author notes

  1. Maxwell J. Scott & Esther J. Belikoff

    Present address: Department of Genetics, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7614, North Carolina, U.S.A

  2. Carolina Concha

    Present address: LBCMCP-CNRS UMR 5088, Batiment 4R3b1, Universite Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse Cedex 09, France

  3. Abhimanyu Sarkar

    Present address: Grasslands Research Centre, AgResearch Limited, Private Bag 11008, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Functional Genomics, Institute of Molecular Biology, Massey University, Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Maxwell J. Scott, Asela Atapattu, Anja H. Schiemann, Carolina Concha, Rebecca Henry, Brandi-lee Carey, Esther J. Belikoff, Jörg C. Heinrich & Abhimanyu Sarkar

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  1. Maxwell J. Scott
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  2. Asela Atapattu
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Correspondence to Maxwell J. Scott.

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Scott, M.J., Atapattu, A., Schiemann, A.H. et al. Organisation and expression of a cluster of yolk protein genes in the Australian sheep blowfly, Lucilia cuprina . Genetica 139, 63–70 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-010-9492-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-010-9492-6

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