salto¹ homozygous and salto¹/Df(2R)BSC463 transheterozygous adults show no obvious behavioral defects. salto¹ males are sterile and do not produce mature sperm.

Cystic bulges and waste bags are barely formed in salto¹ mutant testis and although late spermatids show normal elongation, they show abnormal tail coiling, misshapen nuclei (i.e. coiled and twisted nuclei, instead of forming long needles) that frequently do not associate with investment cones, and altered investment cone migration (i.e. only a few progressing investment cones can be observed; investment cones form on the nuclei just at the onset of coiling but, unlike controls, appear crooked, disconnect from the curled nuclei and do not migrate; nuclear coiling only takes place after the beginning of actin recruitment before complete assembly of the actin cones. Spermatocytes show occasional detachment of basal body from the nucleus, which is virtual not observed in controls. Ultrastructural analysis of salto¹ testis reveals that spermatids exhibit abnormal mitochondrial derivatives (e.g. the major derivative appears more elongated than controls), irregular shape and size of the centriolar adjunct, and a rougher nuclear membrane, but no defects in the axoneme, dense complex or fenestrated nuclear membrane.