Deletion of at least 26kb breaking in the ab transcription unit and removing the 5' portion of the transcription unit and upstream sequences.
During embryogenesis the SNb axons pause at the edge of muscle 13 and form abnormal branches, instead of forming their wild type axonal extensions onto the muscle fibers. These aberrant branches wander over the prospective target muscles and occasionally form connections at ectopic sites. Mutants do not establish the three branched terminal arbor on muscles 7, 6, 13 and 12. The transverse nerve is often incomplete and invades the ventral muscle field. A few muscles (3, 5, 11, 20) show variably penetrant defects in their attachment to the epidermis, and variable defects in the location of their attachments.
It is possible that other genes may be removed by this mutation. The second deletion breakpoint has not yet been mapped. Alleles fall into an allelic series with respect to wing venation and bristle defects: ab1/ab1 = ab94/ab94 < ab1/ab60M = ab1/abG9 < ab1/ab1D = ab1/abG5.