UASt regulatory sequences drive expression of atl carrying a R192Q amino acid substitution; this mutation is equivalent to a R217Q change in the orthologous human ATL1 gene, a pathogenic variant associated with SPG3A (an autosomal dominant form of hereditary spastic paraplegia) and the change has previously been shown to result in a protein that is completely defective in dimerization, GTPase and fusion activities. The coding sequence is tagged with Tag:MYC.
Expression of atlR192Q.UAS.Tag:MYC under the control of Scer\GAL4Toll-6-D42 leads to over-fusion of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membranes with the resulting formation of large globular ER structures within the cytoplasm of third instar larval brain neurons when compared to controls.