Subject: Curation of 36th Ann. Dros. Conf. abstract 327A
Dear Dr. Certel,
I am a curator of FlyBase at the Cambridge, England, site working with
Prof. M. Ashburner.
I shall be curating the abstracts from the 36th Ann. Dros. Res. Conf.
Your abstract, 327A, discusses a new gene required for the formation of
the embryonic ventral nerve cord.
In the abstract you do not give a gene symbol or name for the gene,
could you please tell me what you have decided upon.
As this is a new gene this information is vital for curation purposes
and will be very useful to users of FlyBase.
Any information you can give me will be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Eleanor Whitfield.
Subject: Re: Curation of 36th Ann. Dros. Conf. abstract 327A
Dear Ms. Whitfield,
We have named the locus presented in the abstract 327A this past fly
meeting as 'ripcord' with the acronym 'rip'. We checked the flybase to
make sure there were no other genes with the same name or acronym at the
time. I am sure you have better records to double check this.
'ripcord' maps to cytological position 65D1-4 as revealed by a small
deficiency that was generated in our lab. As we mentioned in our
abstract, we have both X-ray- and EMS-induced alleles of ripcord. Two of
these alleles are temperature sensitive.
I hope this information will be useful. If there is anything else you
would like to know please do not hesitate to contact me by e-mail, or by
phone. My apologies for replying so late. I did not get a chance to check
my e-mail messages since I was on a short vacation.
Sincerely,
Kaan.
Subject: Re: Curation of 36th Ann. Dros. Conf. abstract 327A
Dear Kaan,
Many thanks for your reply.
Thank you for checking your gene symbol against present symbols in
FlyBase, I have double checked this and you are right that there are no
other genes with this symbol.
As you have localised rip using deficiency mapping, as opposed to in
situ hybridisation, could you please give me the name of the
deficiency. The curation methods only allow me to trap this
information under the deficiency itself, not under the gene.
Eleanor Whitfield.
Subject: Re: Curation of 36th Ann. Dros. Conf. abstract 327A
Dear Ms. Whitfield,
The name of the deficiency you requested is Df(3L)XBB70. By looking at
the polytene squashes of this deficiency, we see the loss of a single
band in the cytological region 65D1-3. For more information please see
the following reference:
Andersen et al. 1995. drifter, a Drosophila POU-domain transcription
factor, is required for correct differentiation and migration of tracheal
cells and midline glia. Genes & Dev.  9:123-137 .
Hope this will help. Please let me know if you need anything else.
Kaan.