Datilografo (dati, CG2052) is a nuclear Krueppel-like C2H2 zinc-finger protein of Drosophila, carrying an array of six C2H2 fingers in the middle of a long, largely disordered polypeptide. Its fingers are most similar to those of the fly neuronal regulators Squeeze and Rotund and to vertebrate ZNF384, but true dati orthologs are restricted to arthropods. DATI is expressed in neuronal nuclei of the embryonic, larval and adult central nervous system. It is required for the correct number, distribution and projections of cholinergic neurons in the antennal lobe and lateral horn, and in both neuronal precursors and postmitotic neurons. Through a small set of cholinergic neurons it supports female acceptance of male courtship; separately it supports adult locomotion and normal mushroom-body gamma-lobe morphology. It is presumed to act as a sequence-specific transcription factor, but its DNA-binding motif, direct target genes and whether it activates or represses transcription have not been determined.
Summary: Nucleus is correct and is supported by gene-specific immunostaining, independent of the ARBA/SubCell electronic inference.
Reason: Anti-DATI staining in adult brain colocalises with a nuclear mCherry.NLS reporter driven in cholinergic neurons, giving direct evidence for nuclear localization. This matches a multi-finger C2H2 transcription regulator. The ARBA rule behind the IEA row is not used as support.
IMP PMID:25291190 The KRÜPPEL-like transcription factor DATILÓGRAFO is require...
KEEP AS NON CORE
Summary: Adult locomotory behavior is a genuine IMP phenotype of dati mutants and RNAi, separable from the receptivity phenotype.
Reason: Mutant females have a climbing deficit that maps to different neurons from those needed for courtship acceptance. The term records an organism-level behavioral consequence of dati loss in the nervous system and is as precise as the evidence allows. It is not a direct output of the DATI molecular activity, so it is kept as non-core.
IMP PMID:25291190 The KRÜPPEL-like transcription factor DATILÓGRAFO is require...
KEEP AS NON CORE
Summary: dati mutants have malformed mushroom-body gamma lobes; the phenotype is real but peripheral.
Reason: The gamma lobes of dati1 homozygotes are withered with altered curvature. The same study shows that knockdown in cholinergic neurons does not reproduce the gamma-lobe defect and that this defect does not explain the receptivity phenotype. It is a developmental requirement outside the main antennal-lobe/lateral-horn circuit, so it is kept as non-core.
IMP PMID:25291190 The KRÜPPEL-like transcription factor DATILÓGRAFO is require...
ACCEPT
Summary: dati loss disrupts antennal-lobe innervation and cholinergic projections to the lateral horn; this is a core developmental output of the neuronal regulator.
Reason: Mutant antennal-lobe neuropile is reduced, indicating defective innervation, and cholinergic projections from the antennal lobe to the lateral horn are affected. Together with the precursor and postmitotic requirements, this supports a role in building the projections of the neurons that express DATI. The process is cell-autonomous to the dati-expressing neurons, not a remote organismal phenotype.
Note that the antennal lobe neuropile in (E) is smaller than in (B), which indicates defects in innervation.
GO:0045925 positive regulation of female receptivity
IMP PMID:25291190 The KRÜPPEL-like transcription factor DATILÓGRAFO is require...
KEEP AS NON CORE
Summary: dati is required in a small set of cholinergic neurons for female courtship acceptance; this is a well-supported behavioral consequence of dati loss.
Reason: Rejection is reverted by precise excision, reproduced by pan-neuronal and cholinergic RNAi, and separable from the locomotor defect. Positive regulation of female receptivity is the correct term for the phenotype. DATI acts by shaping the neurons that mediate the behavior, not as a regulator of the behavior itself, so the term is kept as non-core.
IMP PMID:25291190 The KRÜPPEL-like transcription factor DATILÓGRAFO is require...
ACCEPT
Summary: dati is required in neuronal precursors and postmitotic neurons for the correct number and distribution of cholinergic neurons.
Reason: dati1 homozygotes lose cholinergic projection neurons in the antennal lobe and have extra, enlarged CHA-positive cells near the lateral horn. The authors conclude that dati is needed in precursors as well as postmitotic neurons. They also state that dati does not determine cholinergic identity as such, so generation of neurons is preferred over a fate-commitment term. This is consistent with its expression late in the embryonic neuroblast transcription-factor cascade.
ISS PMID:25291190 The KRÜPPEL-like transcription factor DATILÓGRAFO is require...
NEW
Summary: DATI is a nuclear six-finger C2H2 protein classified as a Krueppel-like transcription factor; DNA-binding transcription factor activity is inferred from domain architecture.
Reason: The protein carries six C2H2 zinc fingers detected by PROSITE/Pfam/InterPro, the fingers are intact in every annotated isoform, and DATI is nuclear in neurons. The primary study classifies it as a Krueppel-like zinc-finger transcription factor. No DNA-binding or reporter assay exists for DATI itself, and its relatives (Squeeze, Rotund, ZNF384) are paralogs or distant homologs in different PANTHER subfamilies or families. The general term is therefore proposed, without RNA polymerase II specificity, a binding motif, or an activator/repressor direction. Nmp4/ZNF384 finger-mapping data are not transferred.
All six C2H2 motifs and the flanking sequence are otherwise identical, so Q9V4C9 is a full-length product of the gene and not a fragment.
file:DROME/dati/dati-deep-research-falcon.md
Its exact DNA-binding motif, direct target genes, transcriptional polarity, cofactors, and isoform-specific functions remain unknown.
Core Functions
Nuclear C2H2 zinc-finger transcription regulator acting in neuronal precursors and postmitotic neurons to build the cholinergic antennal-lobe and lateral-horn neurons and their projections. DNA-binding transcription factor activity is inferred from the six-finger architecture; no motif or target has been shown.
Q: Which DNA sequence do the six DATI zinc fingers recognise, and does DATI activate or repress its targets in cholinergic neurons?
Q: Do the isoform B and A/C forms, which differ by a 10-residue insertion in finger 4, have different DNA-binding specificity?
Q: Is PANTHER placement of dati products in PTHR16515:SF49 (isoforms A-C), SF66 (GH06573p, with Squeeze) and PTHR24393 (isoform D) a classification artefact, given the identical finger arrays?
Suggested Experiments
Experiment: Determine the DATI binding motif by SELEX or protein-binding microarray of the finger array (isoforms B and A/C), then profile occupancy in brain neurons by targeted DamID or CUT&RUN.
Experiment: Profile transcriptomes of dati-RNAi versus control Cha-Gal4 neurons, and test candidate targets in reporter assays to establish activator or repressor function.
External Prediction Reviews
These computational predictions are reviewed separately from the GOA annotation set used for this review. The assessments below are from this project and do not constitute official GO annotations or endorsement by GO/UniProt. They are not included in the existing annotation review above.
Neither ProtNLM2 GO prediction for dati can be validated or refuted. DATI is a nuclear six-finger C2H2 protein that the only primary study classifies as a Krueppel-like transcription factor required in cholinergic neurons, which supports a general DNA-binding transcription factor activity. No DNA-binding, motif, target-promoter or reporter assay exists for DATI, its closest relatives with DNA-binding data sit in other PANTHER families, and PTHR16515 is functionally heterogeneous with no PAINT node covering dati. Both the RNA polymerase II cis-regulatory DNA-binding claim and the activator claim are therefore uncertain.
Review rationale: The prediction is not in GOA, which carries no molecular-function annotation for dati. A general DNA-binding transcription factor role is supported by the nuclear six-finger C2H2 architecture and the primary study's classification of DATI as a Krueppel-like zinc-finger transcription factor. That study establishes requirements in neuronal precursors and postmitotic neurons but does not measure activation of any target promoter, and no reporter or transcriptome assay for DATI exists. The related Rotund, Squeeze and ZNF384 proteins are in different PANTHER subfamilies or families, and PTHR16515 is heterogeneous with no PAINT node placed over dati, so neither the activating direction nor RNA polymerase II specificity can be transferred. The claim cannot be validated or refuted.
Supporting Evidence:
PMID:25291190: "dati encodes a zinc finger transcription factor closely related to rotund (rn) and squeeze (sqz) with homologs in several species, including humans"
PMID:25291190: "Together, these results show that dati is required in postmitotic neurons as well as in the precursors of these cells."
GO:0000978 RNA polymerase II cis-regulatory region sequence-specific DNA bindingGO_MF
Review rationale: The prediction is not in GOA, which carries no DNA-binding or other molecular-function annotation for dati, so it would be novel. DATI has six C2H2 zinc fingers detected by PROSITE and is nuclear in neurons, which makes sequence-specific DNA binding plausible and supports a general DNA-binding transcription factor activity inferred from domain architecture. However, no DNA-binding assay, binding motif or target cis-regulatory region has been reported for DATI. The relatives with DNA-binding data (ZNF384/Nmp4) belong to a different PANTHER family, and PTHR16515 combines heterogeneous zinc-finger regulators without a PAINT node covering dati, so the RNA polymerase II cis-regulatory specificity cannot be justified by phylogenetic transfer. The specific claim remains unverified.
datilografo (dati) encodes a conserved zinc finger transcription factor required for the differentiation of neurons in the ventral nerve cord and the brain. In adult brains, the product of dati is required in cholinergic neurons to generate the decisions of accepting or rejecting male courtship.