Gust J, a salt-insensitive mutant of Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

A set of 340 P insert lines on the X chromosome and the autosomes were screened for altered responses of the labellar chemoreceptors to salts and sucrose. A mutant linegustJ was isolated in which the electrophysiological response of the salt-sensitive neuron to Na⁺ in the sensilla of the proboscis is reduced. The responses to KC1 and sucrose are unaffected. In feeding tests, gustJ flies have Na⁺-specific defects. Heterozygotes of gustJ with two other salt mutants gustE and BE1323 are normal. Multiple alleles of gustJ have been obtained by excision of the original P element. All mutants have defects in Na⁺ sensing specifically, thus defining a new gene that affects Na⁺ response of the fly.