Abstract
Publisher Summary The usual red-brown color of the eyes of the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster is because of the presence of two light-screening pigments: (1) xanthommatin, which is brown and (2) a class of pigments known as drosopterins, which are red. These pigments are deposited in membrane-bound granules in specialized pigment cells in each ommatidium of the compound eye. Xanthommatin is derived biosynthetically from tryptophan and drosopterins are derived from guanosine triphosphate (GTP). The chapter characterizes the genes and proteins involved in transport of the pigment precursor molecules from the haemolymph into the fly eye pigment cells. Studies of eye color mutant flies have revealed three genetic loci (white, brown, and scarlet) in which mutations do not alter levels of the enzymes involved in pigment biosynthesis, but instead interfere with the ability of cells to take up pigment precursors.
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