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The Black cells phenotype is caused by a point mutation in the Drosophila pro-phenoloxidase 1 gene that triggers melanization and hematopoietic defects.
Journal article

The Black cells phenotype is caused by a point mutation in the Drosophila pro-phenoloxidase 1 gene that triggers melanization and hematopoietic defects.

  • Neyen C Global Health Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Station 19, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: claudine.neyen@epfl.ch.
  • Binggeli O Global Health Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Station 19, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Roversi P Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK.
  • Bertin L Global Health Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Station 19, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Sleiman MB Global Health Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Station 19, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Lemaitre B Global Health Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Station 19, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: bruno.lemaitre@epfl.ch.
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  • 2014-12-28
Published in:
  • Developmental and comparative immunology. - 2015
Crystal cell
Drosophila
Hematopoiesis
Melanization
Phenoloxidase
Animals
Animals, Genetically Modified
Base Sequence
Catechol Oxidase
Drosophila Proteins
Drosophila melanogaster
Enzyme Precursors
Hemocytes
Hemolymph
Immunity, Innate
Melanins
Phenotype
Point Mutation
Reactive Oxygen Species
Sequence Analysis, DNA
English Melanization contributes to arthropod-specific innate immunity through deposition of melanin at wound sites or around parasites, with concomitant release of microbicidal reactive oxygen species. Melanization requires sequential activation of proteolytic enzymes in the hemolymph, including the final enzyme pro-phenoloxidase. Black cells (Bc) is a mutation causing spontaneous melanization of Drosophila crystal cells, a hemocyte cell type producing phenoloxidases. Bc individuals exhibit circulating black spots but fail to melanize upon injury. Although Bc is widely used as a loss-of-function mutant of phenoloxidases, the mutation causing Bc remained unknown. Here, we identified a single point mutation in the pro-phenoloxidase 1 (PPO1) gene of Bc flies causing an Alanine to Valine change in the C-terminal domain of PPO1, predicted to affect the conformation of the N-terminal pro-domain cleavage site at a distance and causing uncontrolled catalytic activity. Genomic insertion of a PPO1(A480V) transgene phenocopies Black cells, proving that A480V is indeed the causal mutation of the historical Bc phenotype.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/16266
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