THE RIBOSOMES OF DROSOPHILA. III. RNA AND PROTEIN HOMOLOGY BETWEEN D. MELANOGASTER AND D. VIRILIS

Lee Weber ¹, Edward Berger ², Charles Vaslet ², and Barry Yedvobnick ³

¹ Department of Biology, State University of New York at Albany, New York 12203
² Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
³ Biology Department, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06268

The extent of interspecific homology between D. melanogaster and D. virilis for ribosomal RNA and ribosomal protein was examined using the techniques of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, and RNA-DNA filter hybridization. Only 2 of the 71 ribosomal proteins resolved were found to be species specific, while comparisons of soluble larval hemolymph protein patterns showed little similarity. Depending on the technique employed, the sequence homology for 18S + 28S ribosomal RNA was found to be between 83–94%, and sequence homology for 5S rRNA was judged to be complete.