1992 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

The characterization of female-specific gene fs 800 in Schistosoma

Research Project

Project/Area Number	03670194
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	寄生虫学(含医用動物学）
Research Institution	Kochi Medical School
Principal Investigator	AGATSUMA Takeshi Kochi Medical School, Research Associate, 医学部, 助手 (40117031)
Project Period (FY)	1991 – 1992
Keywords	Schistosoma mansoni / Female-specific gene / Chorion gene / fs 800 gene
Research Abstract	Egg production of worm pairs is a major cause of pathogenesis in schistosomiasis. Thus an understanding of female reproductive development, especially mechanisms of female-specific gene regulation is of major importance in disease control. A previously isolated cDNA that encodes the fs 800 protein was used to identify and isolate a recombinant phage containing an entire copy of the fs 800 gene. The gene is contained on a 5.5 kbp EcoRI fragment. There are no introns. The cap-site of the mRNA was determined by primer extension using RNA as template and dideoxy sequencing. The upstream regions of the gene contain putative cis-acting elements (TCACGT, GTAGAAT) that have been shown to play a role in the regulation of chorion gene expression in insects. The other elements that share a common core motif, TRRAAT(R=pyrimidine), are also found. These elements have been shown to bind nuclear proteins and control quantitative and qualitative changes in reporter gene expression in silkmoths.