MOLECULAR AND DEVELOPMENTAL GENETICS OF DROSOPHILA

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We are involved in studying the structure and regulation of eukaryotic genes, using Drosophila as an experimental object. Although we come from diverse backgrounds (genetics, molecular biology, developmental biology, population genetics, cell biology), we intersect in our common interest: to use the genetically most favorable higher organism, Drosophila, and the current techniques of molecular and cellular biology, to illuminate how the genes of higher organisms are organized, evolve, and are regulated during development and during the cell cycle. Indeed, a strength of our group is that it represents complementary and yet overlapping approaches. In the context of the program project, we intend to: (a) Analyze by molecular and genetic means the mechanisms regulating the orderly production of chorion proteins during oogenesis. (b) Investigate by molecular and genetic means the processes controlling transvection, position effects and somatic chromosome pairing. (c) Study genetic polymorphism by sequencing the alcohol dehydrogenase and xanthine dehydrogenase genes of isogenic lines derived from natural population of Drosophila pseudoobscura. (d) Characterize RNA Polymerase II mutants of Drosophila, and attempt to accomplish homologous transformation in the germ line. (e) Characterize structurally and developmentally a homeobox-containing maternal-effect gene, Hb38E, and pair-rule segmentation mutants that map in the same interval. (f) Study the structure and in vivo function of the 205K microtubule-associated protein, the gene for which we have cloned.