Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Genetics logoLink to Genetics
. 1990 Sep;126(1):91–104. doi: 10.1093/genetics/126.1.91

Genetic and Molecular Characterization of the Optomotor-Blind Gene Locus in Drosophila Melanogaster

G O Pflugfelder 1, H Schwarz 1, H Roth 1, B Poeck 1, A Sigl 1, S Kerscher 1, B Jonschker 1, W L Pak 1, M Heisenberg 1
PMCID: PMC1204140  PMID: 2121596

Abstract

The Drosophila gene optomotor-blind (omb) is involved in the development of a set of giant neurons in the optic lobes and possibly other structures in the imaginal brain. Adult flies have discrete defects in optomotor behavior. The gene has previously been mapped in chromomeres 4C5-6, together with three other genes, bifid, Quadroon and lacquered(gls). We have localized the gene in a genomic walk of 340 kb of DNA. By mapping seven chromosome breakpoints with omb phenotype we determined its minimum size to about 80 kb. From this region more than 20 RNAs of different size and temporal expression pattern are transcribed. Three of them (T3, T7 and T7') stem from primary transcripts of 40-80 kb in length. In its distal part the omb gene overlaps in at least 19 kb with four other complementation units, bifid, l(1)bifid, Quadroon and lacquered(gls). The three nonlethals affect the external appearance of the fly and seem to be unrelated to brain development.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (7.0 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Banga S. S., Bloomquist B. T., Brodberg R. K., Pye Q. N., Larrivee D. C., Mason J. M., Boyd J. B., Pak W. L. Cytogenetic characterization of the 4BC region on the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster: localization of the mei-9, norpA and omb genes. Chromosoma. 1986;93(4):341–346. doi: 10.1007/BF00327593. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bausenwein B., Wolf R., Heisenberg M. Genetic dissection of optomotor behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. Studies on wild-type and the mutant optomotor-blindH31. J Neurogenet. 1986 Mar;3(2):87–109. doi: 10.3109/01677068609106897. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bender W., Akam M., Karch F., Beachy P. A., Peifer M., Spierer P., Lewis E. B., Hogness D. S. Molecular Genetics of the Bithorax Complex in Drosophila melanogaster. Science. 1983 Jul 1;221(4605):23–29. doi: 10.1126/science.221.4605.23. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bienz M., Saari G., Tremml G., Müller J., Züst B., Lawrence P. A. Differential regulation of Ultrabithorax in two germ layers of Drosophila. Cell. 1988 May 20;53(4):567–576. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90573-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Bloomquist B. T., Shortridge R. D., Schneuwly S., Perdew M., Montell C., Steller H., Rubin G., Pak W. L. Isolation of a putative phospholipase C gene of Drosophila, norpA, and its role in phototransduction. Cell. 1988 Aug 26;54(5):723–733. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(88)80017-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Brown N. H., King D. L., Wilcox M., Kafatos F. C. Developmentally regulated alternative splicing of Drosophila integrin PS2 alpha transcripts. Cell. 1989 Oct 6;59(1):185–195. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90880-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Campuzano S., Carramolino L., Cabrera C. V., Ruíz-Gómez M., Villares R., Boronat A., Modolell J. Molecular genetics of the achaete-scute gene complex of D. melanogaster. Cell. 1985 Feb;40(2):327–338. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90147-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Chen C. N., Malone T., Beckendorf S. K., Davis R. L. At least two genes reside within a large intron of the dunce gene of Drosophila. Nature. 1987 Oct 22;329(6141):721–724. doi: 10.1038/329721a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Drees B., Ali Z., Soeller W. C., Coleman K. G., Poole S. J., Kornberg T. The transcription unit of the Drosophila engrailed locus: an unusually small portion of a 70,000 bp gene. EMBO J. 1987 Sep;6(9):2803–2809. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02576.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Frischauf A. M., Lehrach H., Poustka A., Murray N. Lambda replacement vectors carrying polylinker sequences. J Mol Biol. 1983 Nov 15;170(4):827–842. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(83)80190-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Henikoff S., Keene M. A., Fechtel K., Fristrom J. W. Gene within a gene: nested Drosophila genes encode unrelated proteins on opposite DNA strands. Cell. 1986 Jan 17;44(1):33–42. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90482-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Henikoff S. Unidirectional digestion with exonuclease III in DNA sequence analysis. Methods Enzymol. 1987;155:156–165. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(87)55014-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Kalderon D., Rubin G. M. Isolation and characterization of Drosophila cAMP-dependent protein kinase genes. Genes Dev. 1988 Dec;2(12A):1539–1556. doi: 10.1101/gad.2.12a.1539. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Kamb A., Iverson L. E., Tanouye M. A. Molecular characterization of Shaker, a Drosophila gene that encodes a potassium channel. Cell. 1987 Jul 31;50(3):405–413. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90494-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Kornfeld K., Saint R. B., Beachy P. A., Harte P. J., Peattie D. A., Hogness D. S. Structure and expression of a family of Ultrabithorax mRNAs generated by alternative splicing and polyadenylation in Drosophila. Genes Dev. 1989 Feb;3(2):243–258. doi: 10.1101/gad.3.2.243. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Langer-Safer P. R., Levine M., Ward D. C. Immunological method for mapping genes on Drosophila polytene chromosomes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Jul;79(14):4381–4385. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.14.4381. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Oliver B., Perrimon N., Mahowald A. P. Genetic evidence that the sans fille locus is involved in Drosophila sex determination. Genetics. 1988 Sep;120(1):159–171. doi: 10.1093/genetics/120.1.159. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Oliver B., Perrimon N., Mahowald A. P. The ovo locus is required for sex-specific germ line maintenance in Drosophila. Genes Dev. 1987 Nov;1(9):913–923. doi: 10.1101/gad.1.9.913. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Pongs O., Kecskemethy N., Müller R., Krah-Jentgens I., Baumann A., Kiltz H. H., Canal I., Llamazares S., Ferrus A. Shaker encodes a family of putative potassium channel proteins in the nervous system of Drosophila. EMBO J. 1988 Apr;7(4):1087–1096. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb02917.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Poole S. J., Kauvar L. M., Drees B., Kornberg T. The engrailed locus of Drosophila: structural analysis of an embryonic transcript. Cell. 1985 Jan;40(1):37–43. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90306-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Rackwitz H. R., Zehetner G., Frischauf A. M., Lehrach H. Rapid restriction mapping of DNA cloned in lambda phage vectors. Gene. 1984 Oct;30(1-3):195–200. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(84)90120-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Romani S., Campuzano S., Macagno E. R., Modolell J. Expression of achaete and scute genes in Drosophila imaginal discs and their function in sensory organ development. Genes Dev. 1989 Jul;3(7):997–1007. doi: 10.1101/gad.3.7.997. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Schneuwly S., Kuroiwa A., Baumgartner P., Gehring W. J. Structural organization and sequence of the homeotic gene Antennapedia of Drosophila melanogaster. EMBO J. 1986 Apr;5(4):733–739. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04275.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Spierer P., Spierer A., Bender W., Hogness D. S. Molecular mapping of genetic and chromomeric units in Drosophila melanogaster. J Mol Biol. 1983 Jul 25;168(1):35–50. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(83)80321-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Tompkins L., Gross A. C., Hall J. C., Gailey D. A., Siegel R. W. The role of female movement in the sexual behavior of Drosophila melanogaster. Behav Genet. 1982 May;12(3):295–307. doi: 10.1007/BF01067849. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Wharton K. A., Yedvobnick B., Finnerty V. G., Artavanis-Tsakonas S. opa: a novel family of transcribed repeats shared by the Notch locus and other developmentally regulated loci in D. melanogaster. Cell. 1985 Jan;40(1):55–62. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90308-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Zabarovsky E. R., Allikmets R. L. An improved technique for the efficient construction of gene libraries by partial filling-in of cohesive ends. Gene. 1986;42(1):119–123. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(86)90158-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Genetics are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES