Keiko HIROTA    Department   School of Medicine, School of Medicine    Position   Assistant Professor
Article types	Original article
Language	English
Peer review	Peer reviewed
Title	Drosophila transcription factors, Séance, Ouija board and Molting defective, cooperatively control ecdysone biosynthesis.
Journal	Formal name：Genetics Abbreviation：Genetics ISSN code：00166731
Domestic / Foregin	Foregin
Volume, Issue, Page	208(2),pp.605-622
Author and coauthor	URYU Outa†, OU QiuxiangOu, KONUMA-KAWA Tatsuya, KAMIYAMA Takumi, IGA Masatoshi, SYRZYCKA Monika, HIROTA Keiko, KATAOKA Hiroshi, HONDA Barry M., KING-JONES Kirst, NIWA Ryusuke*
Publication date	2018/02
Summary	Insect ecdysteroids are steroid hormones that control many aspects of development and physiology. During larval development, ecdysone is synthesized in an endocrine organ called the prothoracic gland (PG) through a series of ecdysteroidogenic enzymes encoded by the Halloween genes. The expression of the Halloween genes is highly restricted and dynamic, indicating that their spatiotemporal regulation is mediated by their tight transcriptional control. In this study, we report that three ZAD-C2H2 zinc finger transcription factors-Séance (Séan), Ouija board (Ouib), and Molting defective (Mld)-cooperatively control ecdysone biosynthesis in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Séan and Ouib act in cooperation with Mld to positively regulate the transcription of neverland and spookier, respectively, two Halloween genes. Remarkably, loss-of-function mutations in séan, ouib, or mld can be rescued by the expression of neverland, spookier, or both, respectively. These results suggest that the three transcription factors have distinct roles in coordinating the expression of just two genes in Drosophila. Given that neverland and spookier are located in constitutive heterochromatin, Séan, Ouib, and Mld represent the first example of a transcription factor subset that regulates genes located in constitutive heterochromatin.
DOI	10.1534/genetics.117.300268.