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Characterization of third chromosome dominant α-methyl dopa resistant mutants (Tcr) and their interactions with l(2)amd α-methyl dopa hypersensitive alleles in Drosophila melanogaster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

Clifton P. Bishop ,
Allen F. Sherald  and
Theodore R. F. Wright
Clifton P. Bishop*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22901, USA
Allen F. Sherald
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030, USA
Theodore R. F. Wright
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22901, USA
*
* To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Biology, Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York 13676 U.S.A.
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In Drosophila melanogaster two alleles at the Third chromosome resistance locus (Tcr; 3–39·6) were isolated in a screen of EMS mutagenized third chromosomes for dominant resistance to dietary α-methyl dopa, α-MD, a structural analogue of DOPA. Both alleles of Tcr are recessive lethals exhibiting partial complementation. Almost half (48·3%) of the Tcr40 / Tcr45 heterozygotes die as embryos but some survive past adult eclosion. Both the embryonic lethal phenotype and the adult phenotype suggest that Tcr is involved in cuticle synthesis. Tcr mutants suppress the lethality of partially complementing alleles at the α-MD hypersensitive locus, l(2)amd. The viability of Tcr40 / Tcr45, however, is not increased by the presence of a l(2)amd allele. The possibility that the Tcr and l(2)amd mutations reveal a catecholamine metabolic pathway involved in cuticle structure is discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Genetics Research , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , October 1989 , pp. 93 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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