GENETICS OF CATALASE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER: RATES OF SYNTHESIS AND DEGRADATION OF THE ENZYME IN FLIES ANEUPLOID AND EUPLOID FOR THE STRUCTURAL GENE

Sharon Lubinsky ¹ and Glenn C. Bewley ¹

¹ Department of Genetics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27650

A screen for allelic variants of the enzyme catalase indicated that the Cat⁺ locus is essentially monomorphic in D. melanogaster. Segmental aneuploidy was used to screen the genome for a dosage-sensitive region for catalase activity. One region, 75D–78A on the polytene chromosome map of 3L, exhibited a hyperploid/euploid ratio of enzyme activity of 1.5. Further dissection localized the region to 75D–76A. We suggest that this region contains the structural locus for catalase in D. melanogaster.

Simple methods have been developed using the specific inhibitor, 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole, for the direct analysis of rates of synthesis and degradation of the Cat⁺ gene product. Based on kinetic studies of catalase synthesis in flies aneuploid and euploid for region 75D–76B, we suggest that these techniques can be readily applied to an examination of mutants that control the expression of the structural gene for catalase in Drosophila.

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