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Genetic and developmental studies of a new Grandchildless mutant of Drosophila melanogaster

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Summary

A new grandchildless, maternal-effect temperature-sensitive mutant of Drosophila me anogaster, gs (2) M, was isolated in our laboratory. At 28.5° C, homozygous gs (2) M/gs (2) M females lay a normal number of eggs, but about 20% of them fail to hatch and about 40% die just after hatching. The remaining embryos, which pass through this critical stage, complete their development normally, but some of them are devoid of pole cells and thus produce agametic adults. The death of embryos is maternally determined and the hatching probability of an embryo does not depend on its own genotype. The influence of several factors on the phenotypic expression of the new mutant, e.g., age of the females, temperature and number of generations under homozygous condition, is described. Mutants of the type presented here could be useful for further analysis of the establishment of the germ line in Drosophila.

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Author notes

  1. Marie-Christine Mariol

    Present address: European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Postfach 102209, D-6900, Heidelberg, Federal Republic of Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Génétique moléculaire, C.N.R.S., F-91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Marie-Christine Mariol

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  1. Marie-Christine Mariol
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Communicated by K. Illmensee

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Mariol, MC. Genetic and developmental studies of a new Grandchildless mutant of Drosophila melanogaster . Molec. Gen. Genet. 181, 505–511 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428743

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428743

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