Investigation of experiential and developmental changes in fruitless transcripts

The fruitless (fru) gene of Drosophila melanogaster, encodes a protein with a BTB-Zinc Finger transcription factor domain. The fru gene is responsible for courtship behavior, sex determination, sex discrimination and differentiation of the male abdominal structures. Due to alternative splicing there are 15 alternative transcripts for the fru gene, and they have different regulatory roles. One transcript for the fru gene, fru—RO, has an extended exon even though it has a stop codon in the amino acid sequence. It is possible that the stop codon is edited by ADAR (adenosine deaminase acting on RNA) before splicing can occur. It is not certain when the change occurs but there might be a relationship between RNA editing and the experience of courtship or the development of Drosophila. By using RT-PCR (Reverse Transcriptase - Polymerase Chain Reaction) to produce cDNA (complementary DNA) and sending amplified copies of the cDNA to be sequenced. This process can determine whether editing by ADAR occurs. The ratio of A/G and T/C in the electropherograms indicated that there is no support for the hypothesis that editing occurs during development. In addition, there is no evidence for an editing soon after mating behavior. More data points are required to determine whether the A to I edit does occur at later time points