Abstract
The Caenorhabditis elegans tra-3 gene promotes female development in XX hermaphrodites and encodes an atypical calpain regulatory protease lacking calcium-binding EF hands. We report that despite the absence of EF hands, TRA-3 has calcium-dependent proteolytic activity and its proteolytic domain is essential for in vivo function. We show that the membrane protein TRA-2A, which promotes XX female development by repressing the masculinizing protein FEM-3, is a TRA-3 substrate. Cleavage of TRA-2A by TRA-3 generates a peptide predicted to have feminizing activity. These results indicate that proteolysis regulated by calcium may control some aspects of sexual cell fate in C. elegans.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Animals
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Animals, Genetically Modified
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Binding Sites
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Caenorhabditis elegans / embryology*
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Caenorhabditis elegans / genetics
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Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins*
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Calpain / metabolism
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Cell Line
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Cell Lineage
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Endopeptidases / metabolism*
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Female
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Fluorescent Antibody Technique
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Helminth Proteins / metabolism*
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Helminth Proteins / physiology
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Immunoblotting
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Male
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Membrane Proteins / metabolism*
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Membrane Proteins / physiology
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Plasmids
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Recombinant Proteins / metabolism
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Sex Determination Processes*
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Temperature
Substances
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Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
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Helminth Proteins
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Membrane Proteins
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Recombinant Proteins
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tra-2 protein, C elegans
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Endopeptidases
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Calpain
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TRA-3 protein, C elegans