Rescue from the abnormal oocyte maternal-effect lethality by ABO heterochromatin in Drosophila melanogaster (original) (raw)

Developmental genetical analysis and molecular cloning of the abnormal oocyte gene of Drosophila melanogaster

Genetics, 1995

Studies of the abnormal oocyte (abo) gene of Drosophila melanogaster have previously been limited to the analysis of a single mutant allele, abnormal oocyte1 (abo1). The abo1 mutation causes a maternal-effect lethality that can be partially rescued zygotically by the abo+ allele and by increasing the dosage of specific regions of heterochromatin denoted ABO. This report describes the properties of abo2, a new P-element-induced allele that allowed us to reexamine the nature of maternal-effect defect. Comparisons of the phenotype of progeny of abo1/abo1 and abo1/abo2 females show that the preblastoderm lethality previously described as a component of the abo mutant maternal effect results from a recessive fertilization defect associated with the abo1 chromosome. We demonstrate here that the abo-induced maternal effect lethality occurs predominately late in embryogenesis after cuticle deposition but before hatching. The phenocritical period for zygotic rescue by heterochromatin coincid...

On Biological Functions Mapping to the Heterochromatin of Drosophila Melanogaster

Genetics, 1985

We examined the behavior of an autosomal recessive maternal-effect mutation, abnormal-oocyte (abo), that is located in the euchromatin of the left arm of chromosome 2. When homozygous in females, abo results in a marked reduction in the probability that an egg produced by a mutant mother will develop into an adult. However, this probability is increased if the fertilizing sperm delivers to the egg either a normal allele of the maternal-effect gene or a specific type of heterochromatin (called ABO) that is located in small regions of the X and Y chromosome constitutive heterochromatin as well as in some autosomal heterochromatin. These regions, moreover, all react to Hoechst 33258 fluorescent dye identically and specifically. The amelioration of the maternal effect produced by this heterochromatin differs temporally from that caused by the normal allele of the euchromatic gene: the heterochromatin reduces only precellular blastoderm mortality, whereas the normal allele of the euchrom...

abnormal chromatin (abc), a maternal-effect locus in Drosophila melanogaster

1991

Mutations in the maternal-effect gene abnormal chromatin (abc) in Drosophila melanogaster result in a variety of defects involving nuclear replication/division. Three recessive alleles of this gene, which maps near 51F on chromosome 2, all result in female sterility. They cause slower embryonic development that is usually abnormal from the earliest nuclear divisions and arrested by the sixth one. Nuclei tend to be large and erratically distributed, some intensely staining. Mitotic asynchrony is common. Few embryos reach the gastrula stage and none hatch. With the weakest allele, fsPL, bridges between nuclei are common; abnormal chromatin clumps that resemble yolk nuclei occur before the other nuclei reach the surface; and spindle anomalies and DNA wads with numerous centrosomes are seen. Females with the stronger alleles, fsA5 and fs27, lay fewer eggs and a smaller proportion of embryos reach blastoderm; developmental arrest occurs earlier, usually with several large nuclei distribu...

Maternally influenced embryonic lethality: allele specific genetic rescue at a female fertility locus in Drosophila melanogaster

Canadian journal of genetics and cytology. Journal canadien de génétique et de cytologie, 1976

A new locus, mel(1)R1, with a maternal effect on embryonic development, has been mapped at about 0.5 on the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster and localized cytologically between bands 2D6 and 3A1. Genotypically mutant embryos die if produced by homozygous mutant females but survive if produced by heterozygous females. Two mutant alleles have been isolated. One of these is genetically rescuable: when homozygous mutant females are mated to mutant males, all the embryos die, but when these females are mated to normal males, female offspring are produced. The other allele is not rescuable. Genetic rescue is dominant at this locus since females heterozygous for the two mutant alleles produce female offspring in crosses to normal males.

The genetic factors altered in homozygous abo stocks of Drosophila melanogaster

Genetics, 1986

Females homozygous for the maternal-effect mutation abo (2-44.0) produce a large fraction of eggs which arrest during embryogenesis. Increasing doses of defined heterochromatic regions inherited by offspring of abo mothers from their fathers function zygotically to bring about a partial rescue of the abo-induced embryonic lethality. Another property of the abo mutation is that the severity of the maternal effect decreases when an abo stock is maintained in homozygous condition for a number of generations. Here, we show that the factors which change in homozygous abo stocks to result in the decrease in maternally induced embryonic lethality, act zygotically, dominantly and additively. More importantly, we show that the X and second chromosomes, but not the Y and third chromosomes, derived from homozygous abo stocks are, when inherited from males, more effective in promoting zygotic rescue of the abo-induced lethality than are the equivalent chromosomes derived from an abo stock maint...

Maternal and Zygotic Interactions Between the Abnormal Oocyte Mutation and the SCUTE4 Inversion in Drosophila Melanogaster

Genetics, 1985

The authors have studied the interaction between the abnormal oocyte mutation and an inversion of the X chromosome, In(1)sc 4, which has a proximal breakpoint in or near the heterochromatic region (ABO) that maternally interacts with the abo product. It has been demonstrated that the presence of X chromosomes carrying this inversion, besides a marked increase in the severity of the maternal effect of the abo mutation, produces a zygotic effect resulting in the lethality of the progeny of stocks homozygous for abo and sc 4. These results indicate that the sc 4 inversion carries an abnormal region indispensable for the development of abo zygotes from sc 4;abo mothers.

Sex And Heterochromatin: An Investigation Of Sexual Dimorphism In Drosophila Melanogaster

2014

Appendix A-The roX1 MS2-6 allele is wild type for heterochromatic silencing…..100 Appendix B-Targeted gene conversion at an autosomal gene, CTCF………..102 Appendix C-Effect of Wolbachia on heterochromatic silencing………………..107 Appendix D-Generation of a Topoisomerase II (Top2) excision by FLP-FRT recombination…………………………………………………………110 Appendix E-Does reduction in Topoisomerase II (Top2) influence survival of roX mutants?.

Maternal-zygotic lethal interactions in Drosophila melanogaster: the effects of deficiencies in the zeste-white region of the X chromosome

Genetics, 1980

The possibility that essential loci in the zeste-white region of the Drosophila melanogaster X chromosome are expressed both maternally and zygotically has been tested. Maternal gene activity was varied by altering gene dose, and zygotic gene activity was manipulated by use of position-effect variegation of a duplication. Viability is affected when both maternal and zygotic gene activity are reduced, but not when either maternal or zygotic gene activity is normal. Tests of a set of overlapping deficiencies demonstrate that at least three sections of the zeste-white region yield maternal zygotic lethal interactions. Single-cistron mutations at two loci in one of these segments have been tested, and maternal heterozygosity for mutations at both loci give lethal responses of mutant-duplication zygotes. Thus, at least four of the 13 essential functions coded in the zeste-white region are active both maternally and zygotically, suggesting that a substantial fraction of the genome may fun...