Construct: A secretable extracellular version of rst is driven by a heatshock promoter.
A 22-hour heat shock of white prepupae (0 hours APF) carrying rsths.18ZΔ3.1 results in a small but consistent reduction in viability. Persistent larval salivary glands are found in 21-40% of these animals, but only 9% of controls, at 24 hours APF. These persistent salivary glands have large vacuoles indicating that the normal cell death process has been arrested at an early stage.
rsths.18ZΔ3.1 is lethal if heatshock induced during stages 12 to 15. In these embryos, the muscles are thinner and more unfused myoblasts can be observed.