Chimeric drosophila adults produced by transplantation of nuclei into specific regions of fertilized eggs

Abstract

When genetically labeled nuclei from the anterior of donor embryos of Drosophila melanogaster at the nuclear multiplication stage were transplanted to the posterior pole of host embryos, chimeric adults were produced in which labeled nuclei participated in forming specific posterior adult structures including germ cells. The spatial patterns of the chimeras resembled those described in gynandromorphs produced by X-chromosome elimination, except that the donor tissue always occupied less than half of the animal. The donor phenotype was usually localized in one area indicating that the nuclei do not migrate separately but tend to stay together with only a few exceptions. The results strongly support the idea that the nuclei at the stage of nuclear multiplication are totipotent and that they acquire different fates according to the region of the egg periplasm that they occupy. The method can be applied to produce chimeras of autosomal mutants for which mosaics are difficult to obtain by genetic techniques. © 1974 Academic Press, Inc.