Vitellogenesis induced by juvenile hormone in the female sterile mutant apterous-four in Drosophila melanogaster.

Abstract

IT is somewhat surprising that the insect juvenile hormone is necessary not only for maintenance of the juvenile state, but also, for proper execution of a purely adult role—egg maturation1. The corpus allatum of Drosophila produces a juvenilizing effect when implanted into late third instar larval hosts (ref. 2 and unpublished results of J. H. P. and C. M. Williams) and this can be mimicked by juvenile hormone analogues3–5. The corpus allatum also accelerates yolk deposition in Drosophila6–9. Here we report the effect of an exogenously supplied synthetic juvenile hormone analogue on oogenesis in adult Drosophila females. We have also found that the analogue can cause vitellogenesis in a non-vitellogenic mutant.