A block in the pentose shunt and in a purine degradation pathway interact to produce lethality in Drosophila melanogaster

John C Lucchesi,Jerry E Manning

doi:10.1016/0020-1790(88)90002-9

Abstract

Null activity alleles of the structural genes for glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and xanthine dehydrogenase in Drosophila melanogaster have no or little measurable effect on the viability of mutant flies. In contrast, double mutant combinations lacking both enzyme activities result in lethality. This observation highlights a physiological interaction between metabolic pathways heretofore considered to be independent.

Highlights

During the course of an investigation of the cis-acting sequences responsible for the dosage compensation of genes located on the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster (Lucchesi and Manning, 1987), we attempted to synthesize a stock suitable for transposonmediated germline transformation (Rubin and Spradling, 1982)
Since the X-linked gene under study was Z w +, the structural gene for the enzyme glucose-6phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD; EC 1.1.1.49, Young et al, 1964), it was necessary for the recipient stock to lack this enzyme so that the activity of the newly introduced gene could be measured in transformants without the complication of an endogenous background
Methane sulfonate mutagenesis (Hughes and Lucchesi, 1977) and Zw H7arecovered from a hybrid dysgenesis cross (Nero, 1986); neither allele is able to produce significant levels of G6PD activity as determined by spectrophotometric assay

Summary

A BLOCK IN THE PENTOSE SHUNT AND IN A PURINE DEGRADATION PATHWAY INTERACT TO

MANNING2 ~Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, U.S.A. 2Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of California, Irvine, CA 92717, U.S.A. Abstract--Null activity alleles of the structural genes for glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and xanthine dehydrogenase in Drosophila melanogaster have no or little measurable effect on the viability of mutant flies. Double mutant combinations lacking both enzyme activities result in lethality. This observation highlights a physiological interaction between metabolic pathways heretofore considered to be independent. Key Word Index: glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, hexose monophosphate shunt, xanthine dehydrogenase, purine catabolism, Drosophila melanogaster

INTRODUCTION

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION