A 1393 bp deletion comprising the entire promoter and coding regions of soti resulting from the imprecise excision of P{XP}d01837.
Inferred boundaries of a 1939bp deletion resulting from the imprecise excision of P{XP}d01837 that removes the entire soti promoter and coding region.
Flies homozygous for sotisik or in trans to Df(3R)Exel6267 are viable, female fertile, but male sterile.
Although sotisik mutant spermatids exhibit no gross defects during early and mid stages of spermatogenesis, severe defects are observed during spermatid individualization, and as a consequence, mature sperm are not accumulated in the seminal vesicle.
Whereas the cytoplasmic content of spermatids are normally removed from the post-individualized portions of the spermatids into the cystic bulge, in sotisik mutants, cystic bulges are remarkably flat due to a significant amount of cytoplasm which is left behind, in what is supposed to have been the post-individualized region of the spermatids. Notably, the advancement of the individualization complex (IC) toward the tail end of the spermatids is accompanied by a gradual increase in the severity of the observed individualization defects, such that eventually all the ICs arrest around the final quarter of the spermatid tails, exhibiting scattered investment cones and failure to generate mature waste bags.
