The Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinase Gene Nme3 Acts as Quantitative Trait Locus Promoting Non-Mendelian Inheritance
Figure 3
The t-allele of Nme3 encodes a hypomorph.
(A) Nucleoside diphosphate kinase activities of wild-type (+) and t-allele (t)-derived proteins or mixtures of both expressed in vitro. The 1∶1 mixture reflects the relative contribution of both alleles to NME3 activity in t/+ heterozygotes, the 1∶2.6 ratio of + and t alleles corresponds to the expression of + and t alleles measured in testes from t6/+;Tgt/0 males (B, C). The columns show the mean of three experiments with the standard deviation. (B) Schematic representation of the transgene construct Tg(Nme3)H17bgh (Tgt) generated for expression of the Nme3 t-allele during spermatogenesis. (C) Expression of the Nme3 t-allele from the transgene construct determined by Northern blot analysis of testis RNA derived from a t6/+;Tgt/0 male. Quantification of endogenous (t6, +) and transgene (Tgt)-derived transcripts revealed a ratio of 1∶0.8. Assuming that the t6 allele contributes 50% of the endogenous Nme3 transcripts, the overall ratio of + to t derived Nme3 transcripts expressed in a t6/+;Tgt/0 male is therefore 1∶2.6. Abbr.: Ace-prom, angiotensin converting enzyme promoter; SV40pA, Simian virus 40 polyadenylation signal fragment; ins, chicken beta globin insulator [33]; Ex, exon; Ndk, nucleoside diphosphate kinase.