Subject: New name for an old gene
I need some advice from the consortium of FlyBase on renaming the
fs(2)lto5 gene locus, as well as the adpfs allele which was originally
described as a mutant allele of the adipose gene. A paper is being
prepared about this and before submitting it for publication I would
like to have some general agreement on the names I am proposing.
In 1960 I described a female sterility mutant that causes maternal
effect lethality that generally ends in metaphase arrest during mitotic
cycles 5 or 6, or earlier, in the preblastoderm embryo. I named it
female sterile(2)adipose (fs(2)adp) because of the hypertrophied fat
bodies associated with mutant homozygotes, which express twice the
normal lipid content as wild-type flies. I subsequently isolated and
described a fertile 'allele' of the original mutant and, on these
grounds, the locus was renamed adipose (adp) by Lindsley and Grell
(1968). Accordingly, the original female sterility mutant was dubbed
adpfs and the fertile allele adp60 after the year in which it was
isolated.
Recently I reported in DIS that the adpfs mutation fails to compliment
fs(2)lto5, one of the EMS-induced mutants isolated by Nusslein-Volhard
and Weischaus in their saturation screen for female-sterile loci on
chromosome 2. Now I have genetic recombination data
that conclusively show that the female sterility gene locus in question
is not the same gene
as adp; indeed, it appears to be located about 1 cM distal to adp.
I therefore propose that the fs(2)lto5 locus be renamed 'maternal
metaphase arrest' with
mama as its genetic symbol. Accordingly, my original fs(2)adp mutant
allele (syn., adpfs) should be renamed mama1, because it was the
first allele at this locus to
be described, and the EMS-induced allele might be renamed mamalto5.
Since I was
the first to describe the mutant phenotype for this locus, I believe I
am entitled to rename
it...at least that is what Trudi Schubach told me. My papers describing
various aspects of the mama mutant phenotype predate by more that 25
years the sparse description of
fs(2)lto5 in FlyBase and in the Lindsley and Zimm's compilation.
I propose that the name for the adipose gene be retained since this was
the first 'obesity
gene' described in Drosophila and this name fits the mutant phenotype.
The fertile
adp60 mutant allele is probably the same naturally occurring mutation
that was linked to the above mama1 because both came from the Kaduna
wild population maintained at Edinburgh. However, one can't be sure
they are identical so I hesitate to suggest that adp60 be renamed
adp1, which would be appropriate for the adp mutation originally
linked to mama1.
Please let me know if you think the new names I proposed above are
suitable, as well as the genetic symbols for mama and adp mutant
alleles. Also, if you have any suggestions about what journal would be
most suitable for the paper I am preparing, I would welcome them.
With many thanks,
Winifred Doane