High impact information on tud

• Developmental analysis of a newly isolated maternal effect grandchildless mutant, tudor (tud), in Drosophila melanogaster indicates that tud+ activity is required during oogenesis for the determination and/or formation of primordial germ cells (pole cells) and for normal embryonic abdominal segmentation [1].
• Polytene chromosome staining, chromatin immunoprecipitation, direct messenger RNA analysis, and transient cotransfection assays identified the Drosophila gene tudor as containing a TRF1-responsive promoter [2].
• Genetics has revealed three additional genes, staufen, vasa, and tudor, that are also essential for pole plasm formation [3].
• Finally, we show that in the pole plasm, Oskar protein, like Vasa and Tudor, is a component of polar granules, the germ-line-specific RNP structures [3].
• Taken together, these results indicate that the tud product is a novel protein required during oogenesis for establishment of a functional center of morphogenetic activity in the posterior tip of the Drosophila embryo [4].

Biological context of tud

• Finally, we show that Tudor can be targeted to the nuage in the absence of Sm methylation by Capsul??en, indicating that Tudor localization and Sm methylation are separate processes [5].
• Eleven chromosomal deficiencies and several rearrangements in the Pu-tud region of chromosome 2R have been generated and examined cytologically [6].
• All new alleles fully complement tud for both lethal and grandchildless phenotypes [6].
• Mutations in the tudor locus of Drosophila affect two distinct determinative processes in embryogenesis; segmentation of the abdomen and determination of the primordial germ cells [7].
• Analysis of embryos of different maternal genotypes indicates that the average number of pole cells formed is correlated with the amount of tudor protein that accumulates in the germ plasm [7].

Anatomical context of tud

• In particular, we show that the nuage and pole plasm localization of Tudor, an essential component for germ cell formation, are abolished in csul mutant germ cells [5].
• During oogenesis, tud mRNA appears to be present in the oocyte precursor within the germarial cysts, and in stages 1-3 it accumulates within the developing oocyte [4].
• Very little is known about the specific role of this organelle, but in Drosophila three nuage components have been identified, the Vasa, Tudor and Aubergine proteins [8].

Other interactions of tud

• Homologues of Drosophila germ cell determinant genes such as vasa, nanos and tudor have recently been implicated in development of the male germline in mice [9].
• Mst89B transcripts were present throughout spermatogenesis in germline-derived cells, consistent with northern analysis which showed that they were absent in the offspring of tudor flies that lack a germline [10].
• Here we show that Tudor-SN (tudor staphylococcal nuclease)--a protein containing five staphylococcal/micrococcal nuclease domains and a tudor domain--is a component of the RISC enzyme in Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila and mammals [11].
• There are significant structural similarities to the Tudor, PWWP, and chromo domains, suggesting probable evolutionary relationships and functional similarities between the MBT repeats and these domains [12].

References