Preface

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PREFACE

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The last twenty years have witnessed a remarkable expansion

in the definition of the Drosophila genome. The emergence of

Drosophila as an organism of choice for molecular-genetic

investigations of eukaryotic biology has attracted a large

number of talented workers to the field, and the rapid

advances in molecular technology have provided new and sophis-

ticated tools and generated novel kinds of information.

This work is a revision of "The Genetic Variations of Droso-

phila melanogaster" by D. L. Lindsley and E. H. Grell, which

appeared in 1968 and was essentially a complete catalogue of

mutations and chromosome rearrangements of Drosophila melano-

gaster as of the end of 1966. The present volume purports to

be such a catalogue current until the end of 1989. The illus-

trations are primarily the work of Edith M. Wallace, the

artist employed by T. H. Morgan; they were mostly drawn

between 1920 and 1940. The same illustrations were used in

"The Genetic Variations of Drosophila melanogaster and its

predecessor "The Mutants of Drosophila melanogaster" by Calvin

B. Bridges and Katherine S. Brehme. At the time of the 1968

publication, genes were identified exclusively through the

existence of mutant alleles; the only wild-type alleles con-

sidered were electrophoretic variants of a few enzymes, and

the only gene for which there was any molecular information

was bb. Amino-acid and nucleotide sequencing and the polym-

erase chain reaction were concepts for the future; cloning of

DNA sequences had not been imagined; transposable elements,

hybrid dysgenesis, and transformation were unsuspected. These

technological advances have shifted the emphasis to normal

gene structure and function rather than exclusive considera-

tion of mutant alleles. This shift in emphasis is reflected in

the title of the present volume, "The Genome of Drosophila

melanogaster". The ability to identify a gene from either its

protein product or the homologous product from another

species, rather than the converse has lead to the discovery of

many new genes for which no variant had been previously recog-

nized. In addition new genes with interesting expression pat-

terns are being discovered in enhancer-detection lines.

Interim versions of the majority of the material contained

herein have appeared in the form of volumes 62, 64, 65, and 68

of Drosophila Information Service. This volume contains infor-

mation on upwards of 4000 genes and 9000 chromosome rearrange-

ments. There are categories of effects, little if at all

represented in the 1968

edition, that have assumed major proportions in the present

version. These include developmental mutations, behavioral

mutations, female-sterile mutations, meiotic and mitotic muta-

tions, Y-autosome translocations, and transposable elements;

in addition many regions of the genome have been subjected to

saturation mutagenesis so that large numbers of lethally mut-

able loci have been identified and deficiency mapped. A major

consequence of the mapping efforts, utilizing both chromosome

rearrangements and in situ hybridization, is that the polytene

map has displaced the recombination map as the more useful

standard. The 1968 volume was subdivided into seven sections:

Mutations, Chromosome Aberrations, Special Chromosomes, Cyto-

logical Markers, Departures from Diploidy, Nonchromosomal

Inheritance, and Wild Type Stocks. In the present version, the

section on Wild-Type Stocks has been eliminated, new sections

on Transposable Elements and DNA Sequences have been added,

and a molecular biology category has been added to the

descriptions of genes and rearrangements if the information is

available.

We are grateful to our colleagues throughout the world for

their contributions and corrections to draft copies. Those who

have submitted entries or sections of entries are acknowledged

on the first line of the entry. Special thanks are due to a

number of colleagues whose efforts on behalf of this volume

have been more than substantial. In particular, Jeff Hall has

provided almost all of the material on behavioral and neuronal

genes; George Lefevre and especially his colleague, Catherine

Coyle-Thompson, provided massive amounts of information and

corrections to the sections on X-linked lethals; Trudi Schup-

bach provided descriptions of female-sterile and maternal-

effect-lethal mutations. Jim Boyd and Scott Hawley provided

the entries on mutagen-sensitive and meiotic mutants, respec-

tively. Michael Ashburner has been especially helpful in keep-

ing us supplied with his encyclopedic lists of mutations,

chromosome rearrangements, and references; in addition he has

gone over the draft copies of the work and provided detailed

additions and corrections. Finally, Loring Craymer and Abraham

Schalet were most helpful in reviewing material and pointing

out errors and omissions.

We apologize for the omissions, inconsistencies, and errors

in this compilation. Every time we reread it we find new ones,

but mercifully, revision has to stop sometime.

D.L.L.

G.G.Z.

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