Bichon, A., Boukhatem, N., Gay, P., Dru, P., Terzian, H., Petitjean, A.M., Lemeunier, F., Contamine, D. (2001). Genetic and molecular features of Su(P), a gene that interacts with ref(2)P in male fertility of Drosophila melanogaster.  Mol. Genet. Genomics 265(2): 354--361.

FBrf0137024

Research paper

The ref(2)P gene is involved in the control of sigma rhabdovirus multiplication in Drosophila melanogaster. ref(2)P activity is also necessary for male fertility. However, in one-third of laboratory strains tested, males that lacked ref(2)P activity were fertile. In all such strains studied, the male sterility phenotype was abolished due to the presence of a particular allele at the Su(P) locus, at 73B1-2. These spontaneous suppressor alleles were dominant. We were able to induce dominant suppressor alleles at the Su(P) locus by X-ray mutagenesis and hybrid dysgenesis, suggesting that null alleles of Su(P) confer the dominant suppressor phenotype. The Su(P) gene was cloned by P element tagging. The P element-tagged alleles identified a Su(P) transcript as a 1.4-kb mRNA produced in the soma of both males and females, which is also abundant in ovaries.