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Molecular characterization of spontaneous mutations at the scarlet locus of Drosophila melanogaster

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Abstract

Six spontaneous mutations of the scarlet (st) locus of Drosophila melanogaster have been studied at the molecular level. Two of the mutants (st 1 and st sp) arose in laboratory populations, while the other four (st cob, st ct89, st dct and st dv) were isolated from natural populations. In five of these there is a DNA insertion within the st region and in four cases the insertion has been identified as being a transposable element; these include the retrotransposons 412 and B104/roo, and also jockey a member of the LINE family. In the other case (st dct), the insertion appears to consist of partially duplicated st sequences. In two of the mutants (st 1 and st dv) the same transposable element (412) has inserted in the same orientation at exactly the same site within the st gene. The transposable element insertions are found in intron and exon regions of the st gene and also in the putative upstream regulatory region; insertions located in introns or exons result in the production of truncated st transcripts. The results show that the same types of transposable elements that cause spontaneous mutation in laboratory stocks of D. melanogaster also cause mutation in the wild.

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  1. J. F. M. ten Have

    Present address: CS1RO Division of Wildlife and Ecology, PO Box 84, Lyneham, ACT, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science, Australian National University, 0200, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    J. F. M. ten Have & A. J. Howells

  2. Section of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, 95616, Davis, California, USA

    M. M. Green

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  1. J. F. M. ten Have
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  2. M. M. Green
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  3. A. J. Howells
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Communicated by D. Finnegan

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ten Have, J.F.M., Green, M.M. & Howells, A.J. Molecular characterization of spontaneous mutations at the scarlet locus of Drosophila melanogaster . Molec. Gen. Genet. 249, 673–681 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00418037

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00418037

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