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Abstract
The lingerer(lig) gene is necessary for initiation and termination of copulatory behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. The liggene encodes cytoplasmic proteins, and is expressed in the central nervous system (CNS) during the late third-instar larval stage when the ligfunction is required for normal copulation to occur after adult eclosion. To characterize the lig-expressing cells in the late third-instar larval CNS, we have isolated a genomic fragment containing the promoter/enhancer region of the liggene, and established transgenic lines in which expression of reporter genes is controlled by the ligpromoter/enhancer. In the larval brain, reporter genes were expressed in all of the glial cells and in clusters of neurons that projected contralaterally. In the larval ventral ganglion, reporter genes were expressed in subperineurial glia, peripheral exit glia, and a number of interneurons, but not in motor neurons. In the cloned promoter/enhancer region, we have found the sequence motif for binding of the REPO protein, a transcription factor essential for the differentiation and maintenance of glial cells. The liggene is thus one of the candidate target genes for the REPO transcription factor.