Molecular Genetics of the Cut Locus in Drosophila

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The cut locus of Drosophila melanogaster is a large gene of more than 200 kb, with a complex pattern of complementation. Each of the two complementation groups of viable mutations has a different phenotype, and the two groups of mutations affect different tissues. There are also a number of complementation groups of lethal alleles, one of which fails to complement all cut locus mutations. Two of these lethal complementation groups have a particularly interesting phenotype. In mutant files, all of the external sensory organs, including both the external structures and the neurons that innervate them, are transformed into a morphologically and antigenically distinct, internal sensory organ. The transformation can be observed in both larvae and adults. Mutations from five of the complementation groups have been mapped, and the mutations from each group fall into a different part of the gene. This proposal sets out to correlate the complex genetics of the cut locus with its activity at a molecular level. Transcription will be analyzed in wild type and mutant flies, and individual transcripts will be correlated with complementations groups. Specific cDNAs will be sequenced in order to determine whether more than one protein is synthesized at cut. Complex genes in Drosophila have the potential to provide insight into regulatory features of genomes not accessible in other systems as yet. This project will provide the necessary ground work for approaching questions of regulation of complex genes, in particular, the cut locus.