Abstract
UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) are important conjugation enzymes found in all kingdoms of life, catalyzing a sugar conjugation with small lipophilic compounds and playing a crucial role in detoxification and homeostasis. The UGT gene family is defined by a signature motif in the C-terminal domain where the uridine diphosphate (UDP)-sugar donor binds. UGTs have been identified in a number of insect genomes over the last decade and much progress has been achieved in characterizing their expression patterns and molecular functions. Here, we present an update of the complete repertoire of UGT genes in Drosophila melanogaster and provide a brief overview of the latest research in this model insect. A total of 35 UGT genes are found in the D. melanogaster genome, localized to chromosomes 2 and 3 with a high degree of gene duplications on the chromosome arm 3R. All D. melanogaster UGT genes have now been named in FlyBase according to the unified UGT nomenclature guidelines. A phylogenetic analysis of UGT genes shows lineage-specific gene duplications. Analysis of anatomical and induced gene expression patterns demonstrate that some UGT genes are differentially expressed in various tissues or after environmental treatments. Extended searches of UGT orthologs from 18 additional Drosophila species reveal a diversity of UGT gene numbers and composition. The roles of Drosophila UGTs identified to date are briefly reviewed, and include xenobiotic metabolism, nicotine resistance, olfaction, cold tolerance, sclerotization, pigmentation, and immunity. Together, the updated genomic information and research overview provided herein will aid further research in this developing field.
Introduction
UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) are a superfamily of enzymes found in all kingdoms of life, including animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and some viruses (). UGTs catalyze the covalent addition of sugars from uridine diphosphate (UDP) sugar donors to a broad range of lipophilic small molecules, playing a crucial role in conjugation, detoxification and elimination of exogenous and endogenous toxic compounds, as well as in regulation and distribution of endogenous signal molecules and metabolites (). Mammalian UGTs were previously called “UDP-glucuronosyltransferases” as most research articles in drug metabolism dealt with enzymes that mainly use UDP-glucuronic acid as the sugar donor; however, the UGT Nomenclature Committee recommended the use of “UDP-glycosyltransferase” in order to include enzymes that do not use UDP-glucuronic acid (). The same notion has been adopted for non-mammalian UGTs (), including insects as they predominantly use UDP-glucose as the sugar donor (; ; ; ; ; ).
The first evidence of UGT activity in insects was obtained by a chromatographic analysis of m-aminophenyl glucoside from feces of a locust, Locusta migratoria, suggesting insects conjugate the hydroxyl compounds with glucose, instead of glucuronic acid (). Biochemical studies in a variety of insect species indicated that the glucose conjugation plays an important role in diverse physiological processes in insects, such as detoxification (; ; ), sclerotization (; ), pigmentation (; ), and insecticide resistance (). Molecular studies revealed that a UGT is responsible for the glycosylation of flavonoids in the silkworm cocoon (). Antenna-specific UGTs were detected by gene expression analysis in a moth, Spodoptera littoralis, suggesting specific roles in olfaction (). It was revealed that benzoxazinoids, the indole-derived plant defense compounds, are stereoselectively inactivated by UGT enzymes in the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (). Also, some UGTs were shown to be associated with insecticide resistance (; , ; ; ). Several UGTs have been identified and characterized in the Drosophila genus, with a focus on the model organism D. melanogaster. Drosophila UGTs have been shown to function in diverse processes including xenobiotic metabolism, nicotine resistance, olfaction, cold tolerance, sclerotization, pigmentation, and immunity (summarized in Table 1). Among non-insect arthropods, the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, has been intensively studied for the substrate specificity of its UGTs (), which are most likely acquired from bacteria via horizontal gene transfer ().
TABLE 1
| Species | UGT gene | Function | References |
| Xenobiotic metabolism | |||
| D. melanogaster | unknown | Some standard xenobiotic substrates (4-nitrophenol, 1-naphthol, and 2-naphthol) were glucosylated by adult crude homogenates, the first enzymatic study. | |
| D. melanogaster | unknown | FPLC-aided enzyme fractions showed UGT activities toward the two xenobiotic substrates (1-naphthol and 2-naphthol) in different developmental stages, suggesting the existence of multiple UGT isoenzymes. | |
| D. melanogaster | Ugt37A1 | UGT37A1 protein was expressed in Sf21 cells and tested toward 38 compounds, but no activity was detected. | |
| Nicotine resistance | |||
| D. melanogaster | Ugt35C1 | QTL mapping, RNA-Seq, RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knock-out experiments confirmed that Ugt35C1 (named Ugt86Dd in the paper) is associated with nicotine resistance. | ; ; |
| Olfaction | |||
| D. melanogaster | Ugt35B1 | Among the 5 UGT genes first ever sequenced in insect, Ugt35B1 showed a high gene expression level in antennae. | |
| D. melanogaster | Ugt35B1, Ugt35A1, Ugt37D1, Ugt302C1 | Along with Ugt35B1, three additional UGT genes (Ugt35A1, Ugt37D1, and Ugt302C1) were highly expressed in antennal transcriptome. | |
| D. melanogaster | Ugt36E1 | Ugt36E1 expressed in antennal olfactory sensory neurons is involved in pheromone detection, revealed by UAS-Gal4 mutation and RNAi methods. | |
| Cold tolerance | |||
| D. ananassae | Ugt301D1 | Cold shock led to a downregulation of Ugt301D1 (GF15058 in D. ananassae) in the cold-sensitive strains, but not in the cold-tolerant strains. D. melanogaster Ugt301D1 was also downregulated after cold shock. | |
| Sclerotization | |||
| D. melanogaster | unknown | N-acetyldopamine, as a sclerotizing agent of the insect cuticle, was found in a form of glucoside in many insects, including D. melanogaster. | |
| D. busckii | unknown | Tyrosine was rapidly accumulated as a glucoside conjugate in the last instar larvae and then suddenly disappeared at pupae of D. busckii, suggesting that the tyrosine glucoside serves as a tyrosine reservoir for the sclerotization of the pupal exoskeleton. (Other species including D. melanogaster predominantly forms tyrosine phosphate instead of glucoside) | |
| Pigmentation | |||
| D. melanogaster | unknown | Xanthurenic acid glucoside was accumulated in some eye-color mutants of D. melanogaster. | |
| Drosophila spp. | unknown | Xanthurenic acid glucoside was detected mostly in the Sophophora subgenus from a wide range survey of 29 Drosophila species. | |
| Drosophila spp. | unknown | Enzymatic activity responsible for the conjugation of xanthurenic acid was measured with crude homogenates of various Drosophila species. | |
| Immunity | |||
| D. melanogaster | Ugt36A1 | Ugt36A1 (originally named Dorothy) was detected in the lymph glands and pericardial cells. Dorothy-Gal4 transgenic flies were constructed for studying the role of cellular immune system and melanization. | ; ; |
Summary of UGT functions in Drosophila melanogaster and related species.
During the last two decades, genome and transcriptome sequencing of insects has generated genome-wide analyses of UGT genes in a variety of insects (; ; ; ), revealing that the UGT gene family comprises multiple genes in each species, ranging from 12 (honeybee) to 58 (aphid) (). Given these and similar studies of non-insect genomes, the UGT Nomenclature Committee was formed to assign systematic names to the large number of UGTs, defining the families (e.g., UGT36) and subfamilies (e.g., UGT36A) at >45% and >60% amino acid sequence identity, respectively1. Originally, families 1–50 are reserved for animals, 51–70 for fungi and yeasts, 71–100 for plants, and 101–200 for bacteria; if these number assignments become depleted, the family number increases by 10-fold (). For insects and insect viruses, the UGT family numbers have been assigned from 31 to 50, resuming in the range 301–500 ().
As a model insect, it is particularly important that the UGT genes of D. melanogaster are identified and named in accordance with the UGT Nomenclature Committee guidelines; these genes define the range of insect UGT family numbers, and also provide a consensus standard to study UGT genes from other insects that will be annotated in the future. For this purpose, we report here the complete repertoire of D. melanogaster UGT genes with updated nomenclature, genomic architecture and gene expression data. We also identify orthologous genes from 18 additional Drosophila species in order to view the D. melanogaster UGTs from an evolutionary perspective.
Results
D. melanogaster UGT Nomenclature
The first Drosophila melanogaster UGT gene to be identified, Dorothy (currently Ugt36A1), was named after a character of The Wizard of Oz (). A little later, five other D. melanogaster UGT genes, Ugt35a, Ugt35b, Ugt37a1, Ugt37b1, and Ugt37c1 (lowercase letters were initially used to indicate subfamily membership), were among the first UGT genes to be named in consultation with the UGT Nomenclature Committee (). Subsequently, several other D. melanogaster UGTs were directly named in FlyBase according to their cytogenetic locations (e.g., Ugt36Ba – Ugt36Bc, Ugt58Fa, and Ugt86Da – Ugt86Dj) (Table 2), which is evidently confusing given the superficial resemblance between this notation and the UGT Committee nomenclature. revised and curated the D. melanogaster UGTs, employing the systematic names to maintain consistency with the universal nomenclature and the five previously assigned official names. In the current study, we have completed the list of D. melanogaster UGT genes and have updated the gene symbols and names within FlyBase to adopt the systematic nomenclature. Furthermore, we have added a UGT “gene group” page to FlyBase that conveniently lists all these genes in a single report to facilitate further analysis and download of associated data2.
TABLE 2
| Family | Sub-family | FlyBase symbol | Synonym | CG no. | Genomic coordinates | Cyto. location | No. introns | Protein length (aa) |
| UGT35 | 35A | Ugt35A1 | Ugt35a | CG6644 | 3R:11170817..11172664 (−) | 86D5 | 1 | 537 |
| 35B | Ugt35B1 | Ugt35b | CG6649 | 3R:11168503..11170246 (−) | 86D5 | 1 | 516 | |
| 35C | Ugt35C1 | Ugt86Dd | CG6633 | 3R:11126597..11128328 (−) | 86D4 | 1 | 517 | |
| 35D | Ugt35D1 | – | CG31002 | 3R:31393582..31395304 (−) | 100C3 | 1 | 521 | |
| 35E | Ugt35E1 | Ugt86Dg | CG17200 | 3R:11164423..11166074 (−) | 86D5 | 1 | 527 | |
| Ugt35E2 | Ugt86De | CG6653 | 3R:11166177..11167981 (−) | 86D5 | 1 | 527 | ||
| UGT36 | 36A | Ugt36A1 | Dot | CG2788 | 2L:3619097..3621573 (+) | 24A1-2 | 2 | 537 |
| 36D | Ugt36D1 | – | CG17323 | 2L:18823548..18826716 (+) | 37B1 | 3 | 519 | |
| 36E | Ugt36E1 | – | CG17322 | 2L:18826770..18829059 (+) | 37B1 | 2 | 517 | |
| 36F | Ugt36F1 | – | CG17324 | 2L:18819344..18822573 (+) | 37B1 | 4 | 525 | |
| UGT37 | 37A | Ugt37A1 | – | CG11012 | 2L:20372409..20374104 (−) | 38C5 | 1 | 525 |
| Ugt37A2 | – | CG5724 | 3R:12739642..12741417 (+) | 87C8 | 1 | 530 | ||
| Ugt37A3 | – | CG5999 | 3R:12741958..12743680 (−) | 87C8 | 1 | 530 | ||
| 37B | Ugt37B1 | – | CG9481 | 2L:6225048..6226842 (+) | 26B11 | 1 | 537 | |
| 37C | Ugt37C1 | – | CG8652 | 2R:16843296..16845038 (−) | 53D12 | 0 | 5251) | |
| Ugt37C2 | Ugt36Ba | CG13270 | 2L:16794211..16796009 (+) | 36B1 | 0 | 523 | ||
| 37D | Ugt37D1 | Ugt36Bc | CG17932 | 2L:16799025..16801584 (+) | 36B1 | 1 | 543 | |
| 37E | Ugt37E1 | Ugt36Bb | CG13271 | 2L:16796595..16798273 (+) | 36B1 | 1 | 539 | |
| UGT49 | 49B | Ugt49B1 | – | CG4302 | 2R:21212880..21214972 (−) | 57D1-2 | 3 | 532 |
| Ugt49B2 | – | CG6475 | 3R:21397781..21399742 (−) | 93D10-E1 | 3 | 526 | ||
| 49C | Ugt49C1 | – | CG15661 | 2R:21215435..21217779 (−) | 57D2 | 4 | 530 | |
| UGT50 | 50B | Ugt50B3 | – | CG30438 | 2R:5496674..5549543 (+) | 41F2-3 | 5 | 435, 5242) |
| UGT301 | 301D | Ugt301D1 | – | CG10178 | 2L:18509560..18513512 (+) | 36F6 | 2 | 530 |
| UGT302 | 302C | Ugt302C1 | Ugt86Da | CG18578 | 3R:11157098..11159744 (+) | 86D5 | 2 | 528 |
| 302E | Ugt302E1 | Ugt86Dc | CG4739 | 3R:11154626..11156513 (+) | 86D5 | 1 | 521 | |
| 302K | Ugt302K1 | Ugt86Di | CG6658 | 3R:11151026..11153849 (−) | 86D5 | 2 | 519 | |
| UGT303 | 303A | Ugt303A1 | Ugt86Dh | CG4772 | 3R:11175529..11177910 (+) | 86D6 | 1 | 526 |
| 303B | Ugt303B1 | – | CG16732 | 3R:23534900..23536710 (−) | 95A1 | 1 | 516, 5192) | |
| Ugt303B2 | – | CG10168 | 3R:23536993..23538908 (−) | 95A1 | 1 | 540 | ||
| Ugt303B3 | – | CG10170 | 3R:23532945..23534767 (−) | 95A1 | 1 | 539 | ||
| UGT304 | 304A | Ugt304A1 | Ugt86Dj | CG15902 | 3R:11173441..11175408 (−) | 86D5-6 | 1 | 529 |
| UGT305 | 305A | Ugt305A1 | – | CG18869 | 3L:4059770..4061923 (+) | 64A5 | 3 | 583 |
| UGT307 | 307A | Ugt307A1 | – | CG11289 | 2L:7067983..7069546 (+) | 27D7-E1 | 1 | 502 |
| UGT316 | 316A | Ugt316A1 | – | CG3797 | 3L:19059400..19062816 (−) | 75F6 | 3 | 636 |
| UGT317 | 317A | Ugt317A1 | Ugt58Fa | CG4414 | 2R:22641786..22643917 (−) | 58F3 | 3 | 529 |
D. melanogaster UGT gene nomenclature and genomic data.
1)485 aa in FlyBase (FB2020_05) but manually amended here, 2)alternative splicing.
Genomic Distribution of UGT Genes
identified 9–10 putative UGT gene sequences, including the five named ones (see above), from cDNA libraries and the incomplete genome databases available at the time. Upon completion of the D. melanogaster genome (), the first genome-wide annotation of multiple UGT genes was conducted and a total of 33 putative UGT genes were reported together with a phylogenetic and genomic analysis (). revised the sequences in detail and identified an additional gene (Ugt50B3). The current study has added one further gene (Ugt305A1), resulting in a complete repertoire of 35 UGT genes in D. melanogaster (Table 2). They are grouped into 13 families according to the nomenclature system: UGT35 (6 genes), UGT36 (4 genes), UGT37 (8 genes), UGT49 (3 genes), UGT50 (1 gene), UGT301 (1 gene), UGT302 (3 genes), UGT303 (4 genes), and 1 gene in each of UGT304, UGT305, UGT307, UGT316, and UGT317 (Table 2 and Figure 1).
FIGURE 1
All 35 UGT genes are found on the two major autosomes (chromosome 2 with 16 genes and chromosome 3 with 19 genes); none are located on the minor autosome (chromosome 4) or the sex chromosomes (Table 2 and Supplementary Figure 1). Among different chromosomal arms, about half (17 UGT genes) lie on 3R (the right arm of chromosome 3), followed by 2L (11 UGT genes), 2R (5 genes) and 3L (2 genes). A large cluster of UGT genes is found on 3R at the cytogenetic location of 86D4 – 86D6, where ten closely related UGT genes are positioned in tandem. The other multiplied gene families are found in one or two genomic locations in close proximity, whereas the members of another large family, UGT37, are spread across three different chromosomal arms (five in 2L, one in 2R, and two in 3R) (Table 2 and Supplementary Figure 1). It is noteworthy that 3L harbors only two UGT genes (Ugt305A1 and Ugt316A1), both of which seem to be unique in their sequences, and are unusually long (Table 2).
UGT Gene Structure
All 35 UGT genes are interrupted by intron(s) except for Ugt37C1 and Ugt37C2 (Table 2). These two intron-less genes do not seem to originate from bacterial UGT genes due to their sequence similarity to animal UGTs (see ). D. melanogaster UGT genes are composed of one to six exons: a majority of genes (19 genes; 54%) comprise 2 exons and the rest of genes have 1, 3, 4 or 5 exons, except one gene (Ugt50B3) has 6 exons in its coding sequence (Table 2 and Supplementary Figure 2). The lengths of intron sequences are mostly within the range of 48–85 bp (41 introns) or 108–584 bp (14 introns). Exceptionally, Ugt50B3 is interrupted by three long introns (1,389, 1,0432, and 8,198 bp) followed by two short ones (63 and 52 bp) (Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Figure 3). This, together with the fact it is phylogenetically distinguished from the others (Figure 1) and highly conserved in insects in general (), suggests Ugt50B3 is one of the oldest UGT genes.
Splicing variants are found in two UGT genes, Ugt50B3 and Ugt303B1, where two alternative transcripts have been reported (Table 2). The Ugt50B3 variant is annotated to have an alternative start codon in the middle of what is otherwise the third exon, producing a protein that is 89 amino acids (aa) shorter than the normal one. The Ugt303B1 variants seem to be derived from alternative splicing sites at the 3’-end of the first exon, resulting in a difference of only 9 nucleotides (3 aa) (Table 2).
The average length of D. melanogaster UGT proteins is 532 aa with two outliers, Ugt305A1 (583 aa) and Ugt316A1 (636 aa), which, as noted above, are phylogenetically unique and located in different genomic positions from the other UGT genes. All the UGTs contain an N-terminal signal peptide and a C-terminal transmembrane (TM) domain (Table 2 and Supplementary Figure 4), indicating that the D. melanogaster UGTs are located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) with their catalytic domains facing the ER lumen, as shown in other animals (). The UGT-defining 44-aa signature sequence in the C-terminal domain, which is predicted to be intimately involved in the binding of UDP-sugar (), is well conserved across the 35 UGTs (Supplementary Figure 5). However, variations shown in some residues in the signature sequence imply different specificity to different sugar donors other than UDP-glucose.
Phylogenetic Analysis
A consensus Maximum-likelihood tree constructed with deduced amino acid sequences revealed lineage-specific gene amplifications in several families such as UGT35, UGT36, UGT37, UGT49, UGT302, and UGT303 (Figure 1). For example, upon divergence from a common ancestor with Ugt307A1, UGT37 seems to have diversified into the largest gene family in D. melanogaster UGTs. It is noteworthy that the UGT37 members are spread across five different genomic locations. On the other hand, other multiplied UGTs are most likely diversified by tandem gene duplications, as they are found in the same genomic scaffolds in close proximity (Supplementary Figure 1).
UGT Gene Expression
Tissue-specific expression patterns of D. melanogaster UGT genes were analyzed previously by using microarray data present in FlyAtlas (). Here, we have revisited this analysis using the higher quality RNAseq data available from the FlyAtlas2 database () – full data for adult males, adult females and larvae are included in Supplementary Table 2; representative data for adult males and larvae are in Figure 2. UGTs from each family are expressed in every adult and larval tissue at some level. Some UGT genes belonging to multi-gene families (Ugt35D1 and Ugt37E1) are undetectable in any tissue, while several others are expressed only in restricted patterns. In contrast, many UGT genes appear to be expressed ubiquitously, with high expression levels often seen within the digestive and excretory systems, particularly for members of the UGT35 and UGT37 families. Across all UGTs, the highest expression is seen within the adult midgut and larval Malpighian tubules. Of note, Ugt50B3, the sole representative of the UGT50 family, shows unusually high expression within the male accessory gland and the female spermatheca, whereas Ugt305A1 is only expressed at appreciable levels in the testis. Such restricted expression patterns suggest particularly important roles of Ugt50B3 and Ugt305A1 within these tissues.
FIGURE 2
Given the documented role of some UGTs in detoxification, we also examined whether D. melanogaster UGT gene expression is induced after exposure to various environmental and chemical treatments by examining RNAseq data generated by the modENCODE project (
FIGURE 3

Expression of D. melanogaster UGT genes in wild type larvae/adults after various treatments (modENCODE;
UGT Genes in Other Drosophila Species
We identified UGT genes in 18 additional Drosophila species and deduced their orthologous relationships to the D. melanogaster genes (Figure 4; see section “Materials and Methods”). The total number of UGT genes per genome varies from 29 in D. elegans, D. pseudoobscura, and D. mojavensis, to 50 in D. takahashii. Some UGT families have been preserved, whereas others have been multiplied or lost through evolution (Figure 4 and Supplementary Table 4). The conserved UGT families are mostly single-member families, such as UGT50, UGT301, UGT304, UGT305, UGT307, UGT316, and UGT317, and show little or no gene additions/losses. The other UGT families comprising multiple genes show variable gene additions or losses in the different species (Supplementary Table 4). One of the most fluctuating families is UGT37: there are 8 gene members in D. melanogaster, but the number increases up to double (16 genes) in D. rhopaloa followed by D. willistoni (15 genes), and decreases down to half (4 genes) in D. erecta and D. grimshawi. The UGT49 family also shows a high degree of species difference: there are 3 gene members in D. melanogaster, but the number increases up to 11 in D. bipectinata followed by 8 in D. ananassae.
FIGURE 4

UGT orthologs in 19 Drosophila species. Circle size represents the number of genes in the indicated group. The species tree is adapted from
Two UGTs that are not orthologous with any D. melanogaster UGTs were detected in both D. virilis and D. mojavensis. One pair is an additional member of the UGT50 family, named as the UGT50F subfamily in this study. The other pair defines a new UGT family, named here as Ugt401A. By BLAST search in NCBI, additional UGT50F members were found in three other species not included in this study (D. arizonae, D. navojoa, and D. hydei), whereas orthologs of UGT401A were present in seven other species (D. arizonae, D. navojoa, D. hydei, D. novamexicana, D. albomicans, D. innubila, and D. busckii). As all of these species form a distant group (“repleta-virilis” group) from D. melanogaster, the UGT401A genes might have been lost after divergence of two sub-genera, Sophophora and Drosophila, or newly emerged in this group, probably playing a unique role.
Further comparative analyses amongst Drosophila and related species will become possible as additional genomes are sequenced and annotation pipelines are improved. This will likely reveal other interesting evolutionary patterns. For example, our preliminary analysis of the genome (
Conclusion and Perspectives
The UGT gene family is one of the largest in the glycosyltransferase (GT) superfamily (EC:2.4.x.y). Since the pioneering work by
Conjugation with sugar residues changes the properties of aglycone substrate molecules by decreasing the reactivity of functional groups and by increasing solubility, thereby combating toxic xenobiotics (
Materials and Methods
Drosophila Genomic Data
Genomic data for D. melanogaster UGTs were obtained from FlyBase (flybase.org;
Phylogenetic Analysis
Deduced amino acid sequences of 35 D. melanogaster UGT sequences were aligned by ClustalW and a consensus phylogenetic tree was constructed using the Maximum Likelihood method and JTT matrix-based model with 1,000 bootstrappings. As an outgroup, fringe (CG10580), an N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase, was used. Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA X (
D. melanogaster UGT Expression Data
Tissue expression (RNAseq) data were downloaded from FlyAtlas2 (5
modENCODE treatment expression (RNAseq) data (
Identification of UGT Genes in Other Drosophila Species
UDP-glycosyltransferases genes in 18 non-melanogaster species were additionally identified, which are D. ananassae (taxID: 7217), D. biarmipes (taxID: 125945), D. bipectinata (taxID: 42026), D. elegans (taxID: 30023), D. erecta (taxID: 7220), D. eugracilis (taxID: 29029), D. ficusphila (taxID: 30025), D. grimshawi (taxID: 7222), D. mojavensis (taxID: 7230), D. persimilis (taxID: 7234), D. pseudoobscura (taxID: 7237), D. rhopaloa (taxID: 1041015), D. sechellia (taxID: 7238), D. simulans (taxID: 7240), D. takahashii (taxID: 29030), D. virilis (taxID: 7244), D. willistoni (taxID: 7260), and D. yakuba (taxID: 7245), in alphabetic order. All the UGTs were classified into families/subfamilies using three complementary approaches. First, D. melanogaster UGT gene/protein sequences were used as queries of other Drosophila genomes available at NCBI using NCBI BLAST. In case of multiple genes in a same gene family, genomic locations were further compared with those of D. melanogaster to confirm the orthologous families/subfamilies they belong. Second, the InterPro database (release 82.0;7
Statements
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Author contributions
S-JA and SM designed the research, performed the analyses, evaluated the data, interpreted the results, and wrote the manuscript.
Funding
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, Hatch-Multistate project under accession number MIS-311360 and by the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station to S-JA. SM was funded by a grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health (U41HG000739) to Norbert Perrimon (PI) and Nicholas Brown (co-PI).
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Michael Court in the UGT Nomenclature Committee for consultations and many contributors to the bioinformatic databases used in this study.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Supplementary material
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2021.648481/full#supplementary-material
Footnotes
1.^https://prime.vetmed.wsu.edu/resources/udp-glucuronsyltransferase-homepage/current-nomenclature
2.^https://flybase.org/reports/FBgg0000797
3.^http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/SignalP-5.0
4.^http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/TMHMM
5.^http://flyatlas.gla.ac.uk/FlyAtlas2/index.html
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Summary
Keywords
Drosophila melanogaster, UDP-glycosyltransferase, UGT, nomenclature, detoxification, conjugation
Citation
Ahn S-J and Marygold SJ (2021) The UDP-Glycosyltransferase Family in Drosophila melanogaster: Nomenclature Update, Gene Expression and Phylogenetic Analysis. Front. Physiol. 12:648481. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2021.648481
Received
31 December 2020
Accepted
22 February 2021
Published
17 March 2021
Volume
12 - 2021
Edited by
Fernando Ariel Genta, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Brazil
Reviewed by
Markus Friedrich, Wayne State University, United States; Wannes Dermauw, Ghent University, Belgium; Kevin Cook, Indiana University Bloomington, United States
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© 2021 Ahn and Marygold.
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*Correspondence: Seung-Joon Ahn, seungjoon.ahn@msstate.edu
This article was submitted to Invertebrate Physiology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Physiology
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