Résumé
The suppressor of forked (Su(f)) protein of
Drosophila melanogaster is highly homologous to two proteins involved in mRNA 3′-end formation, the yeast RNA14 protein and the 77K subunit of human cleavage stimulation factor (CstF). This suggests a role for
su(f) in mRNA 3′-end-processing, probably as part of
Drosophila CstF. We have investigated the expression pattern of
su(
f) during
Drosophila development and found that the
su(
f) gene product is not detected ubiquitously. The Su(f) protein accumulates in mitotically-active cells, but does not in non-dividing cells. This expression pattern corroborates earlier data suggesting that the phenotypes of
su(
f) mutants could result from a defect in cell proliferation. Our results suggest that, in
Drosophila, Su(f) is involved in the regulatory function of CstF.