posterior scutellar bristle & mechanosensory neuron
posterior scutellar bristle & mechanosensory neuron (with Dscam121)
posterior scutellar bristle & mechanosensory neuron (with Dscam1ΔR272)
95% of DscamΔR265 flies exhibit defects in axonal branching posterior Scutellar (pSc) neurons. These include the following phenotypes that are never observed in wild-type animals (accompanied by the percentage of neurons affected): formation of ectopic branches (13.8%), formation of an ectopic branch that crosses the midline (6.2%) and contralateral branch extension (6.3%). These neurons also show deviations that are only rarely seen in wild-type flies (the wild-type vs the mutant penetrance is shown in brackets): formation of an ectopic mesothoracic branch (16 vs 70%), inverted branch order (3.3 vs 12.7%), and an incomplete midline-crossing branch (6.6 vs 12.7%). DscamΔR265/+ flies show these phenotypes but at a much lower penetrance than homozygotes. Likewise, the penetrance of axonal phenotypes is lower in DscamΔR265/DscamΔR272 transheterozygotes than in either homozygote. In contrast, DscamΔR265/Dscam21 flies show an enhancement in the number of ectopic axonal branches produced compared to DscamΔR265 homozygotes.
Analysis of the exon 4 sequences confirms the absence of alternative exons 4.2 to 4.6 in transcripts from DscamΔR265 alleles and shows a compensatory upregulation of the remaining alternative exon 4 sequences.