Logo image
Back
A genetic and immunochemical study of the zeste-white region in Drosophila melanogaster
Dissertation

A genetic and immunochemical study of the zeste-white region in Drosophila melanogaster

Margaret Y. McCarron
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia
1968
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00002059
pdf
McCarron_Margaret_19684.21 MB
PDF Access upon request, Email title, URL, or DOI to archives@drexel.edu

Abstract

Anatomy
[From introduction] Most of the evidence contributing to our understanding of the genetic material, the nature of the gene and its organization has come from the analysis of microbial systems which lack a true chromosomal structure and are not constrained to function within a hierarchy of cellular organization. The lack of detailed explorations of gene-protein relationships in higher organisms reflects both the complexity of true chromosomes and the considerable technical difficulties inherent in the elucidation of their structure and function. Interpretation of data in terms of genetic regulatory mechanisms in higher organisms must consider not only primary genetically determined forms of the protein but also such phenomena as intragenic complementation, protein-protein interactions, position effects, dosage compensation mechanisms, developmental regulation of transcription, translation, pleiotropism, and parallel evolution of related loci. The salivary gland chromosomes of Drosophila melanogaster are without doubt the most extensively examined of all true chromosomes. The distinctive banding patterns have made it possible not only to map mutations in terms of crossover ratios with other known chromosome markers, but, through cytological examination of inversions, duplications, and deletions, to relate a specific mutation with an identifiable band on the cytological map. Extensive investigation of mutants associated with several of these bands has shown them to be complex pseudoallelic loci exhibiting a variety of effects at many levels of organization and development and interacting with numerous other loci in the genome. The study of gene-protein interaction at such a locus should provide a molecular entity to relate cytological evidence of genetic disturbance with the corresponding phenotypic expression. It should contribute to our understanding of (1) the relationship of these phenomena to multiple molecular forms of a protein; (2) genetic control mechanisms both within a complex locus and in the chromosome; and (3) gene-protein regulation during differentiation.

Metrics

17 Record Views

Details

Logo image