Molecular cloning of fused, a gene required for normal segmentation in the Drosophila melanogaster embryo

Abstract

Using the chromosomal walk technique, we isolated recombinant lambda bacteriophage and cosmid clones spanning 250 kilobases (kb) in the 17C-D region of the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster. This region was known to contain the segment polarity gene fused. Several lethal fused mutations were used to define more precisely the localization of this locus. Southern analysis of genomic DNA revealed that all of them were relatively large deficiencies, the smallest one being 40 kb long. None of the 12 viable fused mutations examined possessed detectable alterations. We isolated a cosmid containing an insertion covering the entire smallest fused deletion (40 kb). We injected this DNA into fused mutant embryos and obtained a partial phenotypic rescue of the embryonic pattern, indicating that this region contained all the sequences necessary for the embryonic expression of the fu+ gene. Within this DNA, a subclone of 14 kb codes for poly(A)+ RNAs of 3.5, 2.5, 1.6, and 1.3 kb detected in embryos from various developmental stages as well as in adults. All these transcripts showed the same developmental expression. This transcribed region was injected into fused mutant embryos, and once again we obtained a partial rescue of the embryonic phenotype, confirming that this region contained at least the fused gene.