Sun, W., Valero, M.C., Seong, K.M., Steele, L.D., Huang, I.T., Lee, C.H., Clark, J.M., Qiu, X., Pittendrigh, B.R. (2015). A Glycine Insertion in the Estrogen-Related Receptor (ERR) Is Associated with Enhanced Expression of Three Cytochrome P450 Genes in Transgenic Drosophila melanogaster.  PLoS ONE 10(3): e0118779.

FBrf0227824

Research paper

Insecticide-resistant Drosophila melanogaster strains represent a resource for the discovery of the underlying molecular mechanisms of cytochrome P450 constitutive over-expression, even if some of these P450s are not directly involved in the resistance phenotype. For example, in select 4,4'-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) resistant strains the glucocorticoid receptor-like (GR-like) potential transcription factor binding motifs (TFBMs) have previously been shown to be associated with constitutively differentially-expressed cytochrome P450s, Cyp12d1, Cyp6g2 and Cyp9c1. However, insects are not known to have glucocorticoids. The only ortholog to the mammalian glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in D. melanogaster is an estrogen-related receptor (ERR) gene, which has two predicted alternative splice isoforms (ERRa and ERRb). Sequencing of ERRa and ERRb in select DDT susceptible and resistant D. melanogaster strains has revealed a glycine (G) codon insertion which was only observed in the ligand binding domain of ERR from the resistant strains tested (ERR-G). Transgenic flies, expressing the ERRa-G allele, constitutively over-expressed Cyp12d1, Cyp6g2 and Cyp9c1. Only Cyp12d1 and Cyp6g2 were over-expressed in the ERRb-G transgenic flies. Phylogenetic studies show that the G-insertion appeared to be located in a less conserved domain in ERR and this insertion is found in multiple species across the Sophophora subgenera.

PMC4356566 (PMC) (EuropePMC)