PgmNr D1298: Evidence of pleiotropic effects in some mutants of Drosophila melanogaster.

Authors:
T. Alonso Vásquez; P. Ramos Morales; Y. Trujillo Varela


Institutes
Facultad de Ciencias UNAM, Cuidad de México, Delegacion Tlalpan, MX.


Keyword: locomotion/flight

Abstract:

As in other organisms, in Drosophila, the mutant genes are named and characterized in regard to the change or obvious changes that cause with respect to wild-type flies, leaving aside other issues that could be affected by the presence of this mutation, i. e., although many genes could be pleiotropic, they are considered single acting and used under this concept in tools for studying genetic terminal events and mutagenesis studies. The aim of this study is to compare the displacement (negative geotropism) of mutant and wild-type flies. We used flies showing mutations that could affect locomotion and other affecting color eyes and body color which is assumed, they are not related with locomotion activity: protruding wings (nub: nubbin), miniature wings (m: miniature); dark body color (e: ebony), white eyes (w: white); and interactions among these mutations: protruded wings-dark body (nub-e), white eyes-miniature wings (w-m), white eyes-dark body (w-e), and the wild-type flies (Canton-S, CS), (Lindsley & Grell, 1972). The flies were placed in graduate plastic tubes (pipettes), it was tapped so the fly stay at the base and the traveled distance at 5 min was recorded. Both of them, CS and nub flies traveled the same distance, the rest of the mutants showed a greater displacement (p <0.05), being the displacement of e and w mutants higher than all others (p <0.05). The order of the registered average displacement is: e = w> w-e> nub-e = m = w-m> CS = nub. To confirm the response, the experiment was repeated at noon and afternoon. The average distance traveled by all mutants and wild type flies, were significantly different (p<0.05). In addition, the average of distance traveled was different among the mutants used. At noon, the order of average distance traveled was w = e = CS> nub = m = w-e = nub-e = w-m. At afternoon, the order of average distance traveled was w> e = CS = m = w-e = nub-e > w-m = nub. The results show that some of the mutations used can affect seemingly unrelated activities, such as body or eye color and locomotion. Of all the mutants, w travels farther than wild flies regardless of the schedule of tests (p <0.05). It is interesting to explore further to understand why this mutant offers an apparent advantage to the carrier flies under laboratory conditions, but not necessarily in field conditions. Acknowledges: To Banco de Moscas (Drosophila Stock Center Mexico) to provide the biological material.