Disease relevance of fog-2

• This paper describes the isolation and characterization of 16 mutations in the germ-line sex determination gene fog-2 (fog for feminization of the germ line) [1].
• fog-2 and the evolution of self-fertile hermaphroditism in Caenorhabditis [2].

High impact information on fog-2

• Epistasis analyses place puf-8 and fbf-1 upstream of fog-2, a gene near the top of the germ-line sex determination pathway [3].
• However, since both fog-2 and gld-1 are necessary for spermatogenesis, FOG-2 cannot target GLD-1 for ubiquitin-mediated degradation [4].
• We cloned fog-2 by finding that its gene product physically interacts with GLD-1, forming a FOG-2/GLD-1/tra-2 3'untranslated region ternary complex [4].
• The fem genes and fog-1 are each essential for specification of spermatogenesis in both XX and XO animals. fog-2 acts as a positive regulator of the fem genes and fog-1 [1].
• Thus, wild-type fog-2 is necessary for spermatogenesis in hermaphrodites but not males [1].

Biological context of fog-2

• Wild-type XX animals are hermaphrodite in the germ line (spermatogenesis followed by oogenesis), and female in the soma. fog-2 loss-of-function mutations transform XX animals into females while XO animals are unaffected [1].

References