Imprecise excision of the progenitor insertion, resulting in a deletion which removes the 5'UTR and most of the coding region of NijA, including the last internal methionine.
Mutants have no obvious developmental abnormalities.
Developmentally regulated apoptosis in the stage 10 embryonic head region occurs normally in animals which are zygotically and maternally mutant for NijAD3.
Mutants show no difference in survival or melanisation compared to wild type after infection with gram positive or negative bacteria.