Dear Dr. de Grey,
If you remember, we communicated some time ago about bunched and quo vadis.
Some of the mutations identified by us on the second chromosome (Genetics
139: 1663-1678) turned out to be alleles of previously cloned and
characterized genes. Therefore, Hugo has asked me to send you this
information, so that the appropriate gene reports in FlyBase could be
updated.
1. anarchist (anch) (allele 78/5) is allelic to three rows (thr)
(Nusslein-Volhard et al., 1984).
I have plasmid rescued the genomic fragments flanking the 78/5 insertion
on both sides (using EcoRI and BamHI restriction enzymes) and sequenced
their ends. The sequences of the proximal ends of both genomic rescues
show the 100% match (over 454 and 196 nt.) to the published sequence of
the thr cDNA (Philp et al., 1993; D'Andrea et al., 1993).
In addition, the 78/5 allele of anch failed to complement thr1 allele
(0/129).
Finally, the 78/5 insertion (anch) was mapped by in situ to 54F (Kania et
al., 1995) and thr maps at 54F3-6.
2. fondue (fond) (alleles 25/14 and 50/2) is allelic to cyclin E (cycE).
I have plasmid rescued the genomic fragments flanking the 25/14 insertion
on both sides. The distal end of the 7.0 kb BamHI rescue showed a 90%
match (over 80 nt.) to the published sequence of the type II cyclin E mRNA
(Richardson et al., 1993; Knoblich et al., 1994). This suggested that the
25/14 P element is inserted in the second intron of the type II cycE mRNA.
In addition, a complementation test between the 25/14 allele of fond and
CycE05206 allele indicated that the two mutations are allelic. Flies
transheterozygous for the two mutations (60/169) are viable, but have rough
eyes and wing venation defects.
Finally, cyclin E maps at 35D5-7 and the two alleles of fondue (25/14 and
50/2) were mapped by BDGP to 35D3-4 and 35D1-2; 44D5-6, respectively.
3. Similarly, I have an independent molecular proof that the 81/4
insertion affects escargot, and that floater (allele 69/21) is allelic to
Star. However, this has been already reported to FlyBase by the BDGP based
on the results of genetic analyses.
This information, if included in FlyBase, should be refered to as
S.Prokopenko and H.J.Bellen, personal communication.
Fell free to contact either myself or Hugo, if you have any questions or
would like me to send more detailed information.
Sincerely,
Sergei Prokopenko