Table 2.
Staining intensities of FRUM-expressing cells in fruitless mutants
| Genotype (Sex) | Behavioral changes | % Relative staining intensity (digitized value ± SEM) | Remarks on staining patterns | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n:Pu/Ad | Pupa | Adult | |||
| WT (M) | N.A. | 5/5 or 1 | 100 (232 ± 52-a, 235 ± 42-b, 236 ± 22-c) | 100 (150 ± 122-a, 1302-c) | Twenty clusters of FRUM-containing neurons, within several discrete brain regions and throughout most of the VNC; all cells show similar levels of immunostaining |
| WT (F) | N.A. | 5/6 | 0 | 0 | No immunoreactive cells visible |
| fru1 (M) | Court F; sings; sterile; vig. M-M | 7/5 | 24 (55 ± 92-a), 21 (49 ± 82-b), 100 (235 ± 122-c) | 92 (120 ± 112-c) | Staining intensities variable among immunoreactive cells; levels of FRUM normal or nearly so in several cells, but reduced in most, including to 0 in fru-mAL and ASP1 cluster (Fig. 4); ectopic expression in many non-FRUM cells within brain and VNC (Fig. 4) |
| fru2 (M) | Court F; sings; fertile; mild M-M | 5/5 | 67 (156 ± 32-a) | 60 (89 ± 72-a) | Non-severe and apparently uniform decrement in staining intensity |
| fru3 (M) | Weak court F; mute; sterile; mild M-M | 5/5 | 0 | 0 | No immunoreactive cells visible |
| fru4 (M) | Court F; mute; sterile; mild M-M | 5/5 | 4 (9 ± 12-b) | 0 | A few immunoreactive cells visible with extremely low intensities infru-P and pSP2 clusters (Fig. 3) |
| frusat (M) | Very weak court F; mute; sterile; mild M-M | 5/5 | 9 (20 ± 22-b) | 0 | Immunoreactive cells visible with low signal intensities in fru-aSP3, Lv, AL, P, SP brain cluster; and PrMs, MsMt, and Ab VNC ones (Fig.3) |
In the genotype column, M designates male and F designates female. The behavioral column briefly summarizes the defects and anomalies reported for these five fruitless mutants by Villella et al. (1997) and Goodwin et al. (2000). N.A., Not applicable; court (or weak court) F, mutant male courts females (or does so weakly as the case may be); mute, performs wing extension when oriented toward or following female, but produces no courtship song; vig. (or mild) M-M, mutant males court each other vigorously (or at relatively low levels, but above that of wild-type inter-male courtship-like interactions). For the immunohistochemical results tabulated here, brains were dissected from animals at two life-cycle stages: 2-d-old pupae and 4 to 7-d-old adults. In the n column, numbers of pupal specimens (Pu) are indicated on the left, numbers of adult brains (Ad) on the right. For wild-type (WT) and fru1 pupae, immunostaining levels in the brain-neuronal clustersfru-aSP2, fru-P, and fru-mcAL (Figs.3, 4A,C,E) were analyzed. The fru1mutant showed variable staining intensities among cells or within clusters, as shown in Figure 4; here, this variability is exemplified by quantifying FRUM levels in three brain-cell groups of pupae and one such (fru-mcAL) in adults. Forfru2 pupae and adults, the comparisons relative to WT are for the fru-aSP2 cluster. Forfru4 and frusat, cells infru-P clusters were analyzed (Fig. 3H,I), these being one of only two brain regions retaining FRUMimmunostaining in these mutants (in pupae only). The mean digitized signal levels (± SEM) are within parentheses in the first two data columns (no SEM for fru-mcAL in WT adult, in that only one specimen was quantified for this cluster, whereas five WT male brains were analyzed for fru-aSP2). The nominal maximal values for wild-type pupal and adult brains were set at 100%, and the mutant percentages quoted are relative to that maximum.
fru-aSP2.
fru-P.
fru-mcAL.