Figure 5

The AS-C of D. virilis. A) The AS-C is highly conserved between D. melanogaster and D. virilis concerning gene number, transcript orientation and overall size. At the protein level (% identity) the best conservation is found between the Sc and L'sc orthologs. However, the conservation rate is lower compared with the E(spl) bHLH proteins (see Fig. 1). The pcl gene, although only 50.4% identical, is found between l'sc and ase. Because of gaps in the genomic virilis sequence, a scheme of the D. melanogaster complex is shown. B) Alignment of the Ase protein orthologs of D. melanogaster and D. virilis. Note the extension of the D.v.Ase protein by repetitive amino acid stretches composed of poly N, poly Q and poly A. The best conservation is found within the bHLH domain (purple). Identical residues are marked in blue; red shows highly related and yellow similar residues.