dHMG-Z, a second HMG-1-related protein in Drosophila melanogaster

We report the identification of dHMG-Z, a gene related to dHMG-D and encoding a second invertebrate homologue of HMG 1 protein. The encoded proteins is 65% identical to dHMG-D protein, and also contains a single HMG-box as the DNA recognition motif. Analogous to dHMG-D, two transcripts are observed for dHMG-Z which are differentially regulated, and are the product of zygotic transcription unlike the dHMG-D transcripts which arise from both maternal and zygotic transcription. The genes for dHMG-D and dHMG-Z are located on adjacent loci in the genome and each contains two introns. The position of the second intron in the coding region is conserved between the two genes suggesting a common origin via gene duplication.