Figure 2. Expression of Dp in adult skeletal muscles rescues the lethality of the whole-body Dp^−/− null mutant animals.

(a) Confocal sections of the adepithelial cells show that Dp expression is restricted to the adult myoblasts of the rescued animals (Dp^a3/Df(2R)Exel7124;Mef2-GAL4/UAS-Dp, bottom panel), compared with the Dp-mutant (Dp^a3/Df(2R)Exel7124, middle panel), and control (Dp^a3/+;Mef2-GAL4/UAS-Dp, top panel). Representative images are shown. Scale bar, 0.5 μm. (b) The number of viable flies was quantified throughout development. Dp mutants, Dp^a3/Df(2R)Exel7124 (grey line, n=445), are lethal at mid-pupa stage. The lethality is partially rescued by overexpressing UAS-Dp in the muscle using either Mef2-GAL4 (black dotted line, n=204 flies), 24B-GAL4 (red dotted line, n=65 flies) or 1151-GAL4 (green dotted line, n=72 flies). Control genotypes are Dp^a3/+; Mef2-GAL4/UAS-Dp (black solid line, n=337 flies), Dp^a3/+;24B-GAL4/UAS-Dp (red solid line, n=66 flies) and 1151-GAL4;Dp^a3/+;UAS-Dp (green solid line, n=113 flies). At least two independent experiments were performed using at least six replicates per genotype each. The genotypes Dp^a3/Df(2R)Exel7124;Mef2-GAL4/UAS-Dp, Dp^a3/Df(2R)Exel7124;1151-GAL4/UAS-Dp, and their respective controls were confirmed by single-fly PCR and by sequencing the Dp-mutant allele in individual flies. Representative images are shown at the bottom. Scale bar, 0.5 mm. See also Supplementary Fig. 1.