The TRA-1 transcription factor binds TRA-2 to regulate sexual fates in Caenorhabditis elegans.

The tra-1 and tra-2 sex-determining genes promote female fates in Caenorhabditis elegans. Classical genetic studies placed tra-1 as the terminal regulator of the pathway with tra-2 acting upstream as a regulator of regulators of tra-1. Here we report the surprising result that the TRA-1 transcription factor binds the intracellular domain ...
of the TRA-2 membrane protein. This binding is dependent on the MX regulatory domain, a region of the TRA-2 intracellular domain shown previously to be critical for the onset of hermaphrodite spermatogenesis. The functional importance of the TRA-1-TRA-2 physical interaction is supported by genetic interactions between tra-1(0) and tra-2(mx) mutations: a reduction of tra-1 gene dose from two copies to one copy enhances the tra-2(mx) feminization phenotype, but has no apparent somatic effect. In Caenorhabditis briggsae, we also find an MX-dependent interaction between Cb-TRA-1 and Cb-TRA-2, but intriguingly, no cross-species interactions are seen. The conservation of the TRA-1- TRA-2 interaction underscores its importance in sex determination.
Mesh Terms:
Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Base Sequence, Binding Sites, Caenorhabditis elegans, Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins, Conserved Sequence, DNA Primers, DNA-Binding Proteins, Female, Germ Cells, Helminth Proteins, Hermaphroditism, Male, Membrane Proteins, Protein Binding, Recombinant Proteins, Sequence Alignment, Sex Differentiation, Species Specificity, Spermatogenesis, Transcription Factors, Two-Hybrid System Techniques
EMBO J.
Date: Mar. 15, 2001
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