Rare tralKG08052/Df(3L)iro-2 females produce eggs at a substantially reduced rate compared to wild-type females. The mutant females accumulate many late stage oocytes, but most are not laid. The retained eggs laid by tralKG08052/Df(3L)iro-2 females have many morphological defects; many have fused dorsal appendages, many are smaller than wild type, and some have open anterior chorions.
Egg chambers of females containing homozygous germline clones often show incomplete nurse cell dumping.
tralKG08052/Df(3L)iro-2 egg chambers show disorganisation of the actin cables that normally restrain the nurse cell nuclei, and nurse cell nuclei are often seen to have entered the ring canals.
80% of eggs laid by tralKG08052 homozygous mothers have either no dorsal appendages or a single fused appendage. This phenotype is seen in 100% of eggs laid by tralKG08052/Df(3L)ED4483 mothers, 93% of eggs laid by tralKG08052/trale03082 mothers, but only 12% of eggs tralKG08052/trald09277 mothers.
tral[+]/tralKG08052 is an enhancer of dorsal appendage | maternal effect phenotype of BicC4
The penetrance of the mutant dorsal appendage phenotype seen in eggs laid by BicC4/+ females (5%) is dramatically increased if the females also carry tralKG08052/+ (97%).
The lethal allele, sti1, fully complements tralKG08052.
Based on the extent of ventralization in eggs laid by from homozygous or transheterozygous females, the following αTub67C alleles can be ranked from strongest to weakest as follows: trale03082 >= tralKG08052 >> trald09277.
Precise excision of the insertion restores wild-type viability and fertility.