Paternal imprinting of inversion Uab1 causes homeotic transformations in drosophila

Abstract

Paternal transmission of the bithorax-complex (BX-C) rearrangement, inversion Uab1, causes a specific dominant gain of function phenotype in most abdominal segments. This represents a case of paternal imprinting since the mutant phenotype will occur only if inversion Uab1 is paternally transmitted. The transformations in males are toward genital arch tissue. For females the transformations are to tissue found on abdominal segment 7 (Ab7) and to structures normally restricted to the genital disc. Ninety-six percent of transformed areas appear on Ab5 and Ab6 in both sexes and on Ab7 in females, coinciding with the Abd-B domain. Four percent of the transformations occurred on Ab1 through Ab4, coinciding with the abd-A domain. The mutant phenotype can be dramatically enhanced by modifying genes such as the posterior BX-C mutant tuh-3. Expressivity is modulated by maternal effect alleles interacting with tuh-3. A region of function within inversion Uab1 appears to be programmed during spermatogenesis to function in a legacy dependent manner during embryogenesis.