Terno, a cyclin-interacting protein regulating meiotic exit and sperm differentiation in Drosophila.

Authors

Elisabetta Bucciarelli, Lucia Graziadio, Claudia Pellacani, Maria Patrizia Somma, Caterina Mencarelli, Silvia Bonaccorsi, Maurizio Gatti

Published in

The Journal of cell biology. Volume 225. Issue 10. Oct 05, 2026. Epub Aug 13, 2026.

Abstract

In animal systems, the only case of third meiotic division without a prior round of DNA replication has been described in Drosophila males carrying mutations in roughex, a gene encoding an inhibitor of Cdk1 activity. Here, we describe another Drosophila gene, terno (teo), that regulates meiotic exit in males. In teo mutants, meiosis I and II are regular, but in many germline cysts, the 64 haploid spermatids undergo an extra division. Additionally, teo mutants are defective in sperm individualization. Teo interacts with cyclin A and B, Fizzy (Cdc20), and the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome components Cdc16 and Cdc27. In teo mutant testes, the cyclin A and B levels are higher than in wild type, and downregulation of either cyclin rescues the teo mutant phenotypes. These results suggest that Teo facilitates targeted degradation of the cyclins, so that in teo mutants, there is an increase in Cdk1-CycA and Cdk1-CycB activities, resulting in both the extra meiotic division and the sperm maturation defect.

PMID:
42593398
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Aug 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.