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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1979 Feb;76(2):884–887. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.2.884

Isolation and analysis of chemosensory behavior mutants in Drosophila melanogaster.

L Tompkins, M J Cardosa, F V White, T G Sanders
PMCID: PMC383081  PMID: 106397

Abstract

A behavioral countercurrent paradigm has been developed for assaying the chemotactic responses of wild-type and mutant Drosophila melanogaster adults. Oregon R males avoid both quinine sulfate and NaCl, whereas Oregon R females reject the quinine salt but are attracted to NaCl when tested in this paradigm. Wild-type behavior is sufficiently reproducible to allow identification of mutants affecting chemotaxis, and 12 such mutants, in six complementation groups, have now been isolated. Three of the mutants respond abnormally to NaCl, two in one complementation group with atactic behavior (no chemotaxis) and the other, in a separate group, with a mistactic response (attraction to the stimulus). Four mutants in another group respond mistactically to quinine sulfate. Of the remaining mutants, two in one group behave atactically and three, in two groups, respond mistactically to either chemical stimulus. Several of the mutants also show abnormal behavior in a proboscis extension assay when tested individually with sucrose solutions.

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Selected References

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

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