Transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of the gene for Dally, a Drosophila integral membrane proteoglycan.

"division abnormally delayed"(dally), a Drosophila member of the glypican family, has been implicated in Dpp and Wg signaling. Here, we report the genomic structure and regulation of the dally gene. The dally gene is composed of nine exons, and its expression is controlled by a TATA-less promoter. Analysis of transgenic flies bearing the dally promoter fused to the lacZ reporter gene showed that a 371 bp sequence of the dally 5' flanking region was capable of mimicking the patterns of dally enhancer trap expression in developing tissues, including embryonic epidermis and imaginal discs. The tissue-specific enhancers that drive marker gene expression in embryo and the wing disc are mapped in the 5' upstream region of dally gene. We propose that dally gene expression is also regulated posttranscriptionally by controlling the translation efficiency and stability of its mRNA.