Complementation at the maroon-like eye-color locus of Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Two "allelic" Drosophila melanogaster mutants which are deficient in xanthine dehydrogenase can complement one another in heterozygotes. This complementation is due to the production of small amounts of xanthine dehydrogenase, enough of which is present to restore the normal eye color. However, not enough of the enzyme is present to produce normal amounts of the enzyme products, or to reduce the accumulation of the enzyme substrates to levels found in wild-type flies.