Celebrating #FlyDay to commemorate the isolation of w1118 mutant by Prof Robert Lewis while in Rubin lab. The 1st white (W) eyed mutant was isolated in Morgan lab (see inset for 1st sentence of his paper) which contributed significantly to the chromosomal theory of inheritance.
To know more in details about the first white mutants, here is a tweet by @sci_flies
W1118 mutant is a heavily used fly stock for transgenic generation as it makes it super easy to screen transgenics that have mini white as a marker. Our facility @BLiSc uses this strain extensively and has generated ~7000 transgenic flies in past 10 years.
White gene encodes ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporter important for eye pigment pathway. Its loss has more consequences than just loss of eye pigment. Germ line mutant are recessive lethal in some organisms. See:
and publications discussed in these tw
W1118 flies undergo age dependent retinal degeneration. They’re more sensitive to light, but show defects in visual acuity, phototaxis & ERG. mw+ rescues this phenotype. frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…
W1118 flies show learning defects. W transports precursors of eye pigments, which r also precursors of serotonin and dopamine. Levels of both are low in w- flies. Serotonin is essential of place memory in flies. w1118 has defective memory pnas.org/content/105/14…
W1118 flies die younger than wild type. This effect is most pronounced in females. In addition, their tolerance to different stresses such as starvation or oxidative stress is very low. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29354028/
w1118 shows progressive deterioration of climbing ability with age & an abnormal courtship behavior. With so many phenotypes, one shd be careful about using w- as controls, & interpreting old data where they were used. Presence of mw+ transgene rescues some of these phenotypes.
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