In this article, the authors isolate a gene encoding a neuropeptide in Drosophila melanogaster. The substance is called pigment-dispersing factor (PDF), based on one of the roles it plays in crustaceans (the arthropods in which this factor was initially discovered). The PDF-encoding Drosophila gene (pdf) is intronless and present in a single copy per haploid genome. The cytological location of pdf is 97B on the third chromosome. The putative 102-amino-acid precursor (prepro-PDF) consists of a signal peptide and a PDF-associated peptide, followed by the mature PDF. The PDF-associated peptide region of the precursor is highly diverged from those of the crustacean precursors, whereas the primary structure of the mature PDF is conserved in other members of the pigment-dispersing hormone family. A single pdf transcript (ca. 0.8 kb) is expressed predominantly in the head; the expression levels of pdf mRNA are consistently higher in males than in females. Putative pdf homologous transcripts are present in other Drosophila species, which exhibit similar sexual dimorphic expression patterns. Cyclic expression of pdf over the course of the day and night was assessed, but the mRNA exhibited at best very gentle cycling. The pdf expression in two behaviorally arrhythmic mutants were examined; the expression was intact in a period0 mutant but absent in the disconnected mutant.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 December 2017.
All research outputs
#6,673,195
of 30,878,141 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Biological Rhythms
#243
of 777 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#7,524
of 41,573 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Biological Rhythms
#2
of 4 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 30,878,141 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 74th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 777 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 19.9. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 65% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 41,573 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 66% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 4 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 2 of them.
