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. 2002 Sep;162(1):165–176. doi: 10.1093/genetics/162.1.165

Using the P[wHy] hybrid transposable element to disrupt genes in region 54D-55B in Drosophila melanogaster.

Stephanie E Mohr 1, William M Gelbart 1
PMCID: PMC1462237  PMID: 12242231

Abstract

Understanding the function of each gene in the genome of a model organism such as Drosophila melanogaster is an important goal. The development of improved methods for uncovering the mutant phenotypes of specific genes can accelerate achievement of this goal. The P[wHy] hybrid transposable element can be used to generate nested sets of precisely mapped deletions in a given region of the Drosophila genome. Here we use the P[wHy] method to generate overlapping, molecularly defined deletions from a set of three P[wHy] insertions in the 54E-F region of chromosome 2. Deletions that span a total of 0.5 Mb were identified and molecularly mapped precisely. Using overlapping deletions, the mutant phenotypes of nine previously uncharacterized genes in a 101-kb region were determined, including identification of new loci required for viability and female fertility. In addition, the deletions were used to molecularly map previously isolated lethal mutations. Thus, the P[wHy] method provides an efficient method for systematically determining the phenotypes of genes in a given region of the fly genome.

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Selected References

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