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Developmental Regulation of the rosy Locus in Drosophila melanogaster

  • Chapter
The Molecular Biology of Cell Determination and Cell Differentiation

Part of the book series: Developmental Biology ((DEBO,volume 5))

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Abstract

The rosy locus of Drosophila melanogaster encodes the enzyme xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH, xanthine: NAD oxidoreductase). The most thoroughly studied gene-enzyme system in higher eukaryotes (Sang, 1984), and long a paradigm for eukaryotic gene organization, the rosy locus has recently become a fertile system for analysis of eukaryotic gene regulation. The major reasons for this are:

  1. 1

    The locus encodes an enzyme (XDH) that has been isolated and characterized and is easily assayed in extracts of small numbers of whole organisms or isolated tissues (see Sections 3 and 6).

  2. 2

    The locus has been subject to intensive fine-structure genetic analyses that have defined its limits and organization (see Sections 4 and 7).

  3. 3

    Effective phenotypic selection and screening protocols are available (see Section 2), taking advantage of conditional lethality at the locus, and resulting in the isolation of a wealth of mutants, including regulatory variants (see Section 7).

  4. 4

    It is clear that expression of rosy is regulated at both the stage and tissue levels during development (see Section 6); mutants that affect particular stages and tissues have been identified (see Section 7).

  5. 5

    The locus has been cloned and sequenced. Thus, molecular probes are available for analyses at the DNA and RNA levels (see Sections 4 and 5).

  6. 6

    The technique of P element-mediated transformation was initiated using the rosy system, and genetic and molecular analyses using transposons are now quite advanced (see Sections 4 and 7). Manipulation of rosy transposons also permits analysis of a range of regulatory phenomena not exclusive to XDH, including euchromatic position effects, heterochromatic position effects, and dosage compensation (see Section 7).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular and Cell Biology Department, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, 06268, USA

    F. Lee Dutton Jr. & Arthur Chovnick

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  1. F. Lee Dutton Jr.
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  2. Arthur Chovnick
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  1. University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Leon W. Browder

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© 1988 Plenum Press, New York

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Dutton, F.L., Chovnick, A. (1988). Developmental Regulation of the rosy Locus in Drosophila melanogaster . In: Browder, L.W. (eds) The Molecular Biology of Cell Determination and Cell Differentiation. Developmental Biology, vol 5. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6817-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6817-9_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-6819-3

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