The determination of sense organs in Drosophila: a search for interacting genes.
The determination of sense organs in Drosophila requires the concerted action of a battery of genes, several of which have been identified. Previous experiments revealed that flies doubly heterozygous for mutations in two of these genes have a reduced number of sense organs, suggesting the existence of a direct interaction between the corresponding genes and/or their products. We have now used this observation to search for mutations in additional genes that would show similar interactions. We have detected 10 recessive mutations that show a dominant reduction in the number of bristles when simultaneously heterozygous for either Df(2)J27 or Df(4)M62f. Among these mutations, 3 are homozygous viable and show striking defects in their bristle patterns, confirming that the genes thus identified play a role in the patterning of sense organs. We conclude that the "gene dose titration" method (Botas et al., 1982) is an efficient method for identifying interacting genes involved in a common process, provided one can identify a well-defined phenotype to look at, and at least one mutation that alters the process. Our experience suggests that its efficiency should be substantially improved by the use of insertional mutagenesis.
Dambly-Chaudière
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Département de Biologie Moléculaire, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Rhode-St-Genèse, Belgium.
Leyns
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D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004330:Drosophila / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics; D009024:Morphogenesis; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D012679:Sense Organs / Q000196:embryology*