Han, S.H., Ryu, J.H., Oh, C.T., Nam, K.B., Nam, H.J., Jang, I.H., Brey, P.T., Lee, W.J. (2004). The moleskin gene product is essential for Caudal-mediated constitutive antifungal Drosomycin gene expression in Drosophila epithelia.  Insect Mol. Biol. 13(3): 323--327.

FBrf0179241

Research paper

The homeobox gene, Caudal, encodes the DNA-binding nuclear transcription factor that plays a crucial role during development and innate immune response. The Drosophila homologue of importin-7 (DIM-7), encoded by moleskin, was identified as a Caudal-interacting molecule during yeast two-hybrid screening. Both mutation of the minimal region of Caudal responsible for moleskin binding and RNA interference (RNAi) of moleskin dramatically inhibited the Caudal nuclear localization. Furthermore, Caudal-mediated constitutive expression of antifungal Drosomycin gene was severely affected in the moleskin-RNAi flies, showing a local Drosomycin expression pattern indistinguishable from that of the Caudal-RNAi flies. These in vivo data suggest that DIM-7 mediates Caudal nuclear localization, which is important for the proper Caudal function necessary for regulating innate immune genes in Drosophila.