WHITE [w]
Lindsley & Grell, 1972, p. 268
location: 1-1.5.
origin: Spontaneous.
discoverer: Morgan, 10e.
references: 1910, Science 32: 120-22.
Morgan and Bridges, 1916, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Publ. No. 237: 25 (fig.).
Sturtevant and Beadle, 1939, An Introduction to Genetics, Saunders, p. 64 (fig.).
phenotype: Eyes pure white. Ocelli, adult testes sheaths, and larval Malpighian tubules colorless. Wild-type alleles not completely dominant to w; w/+ has less red pigment than +/+ (Muller, 1935, J. Genet. 30: 407-14; Ziegler-Günder and Hadorn, 1958, Z. Vererbungslehre 89: 235-45; Green, 1959, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S. 45: 549-53). w adult has very little, if any, pteridine (Hadorn and Mitchell, 1951, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S. 37: 650-65). Isoxanthopterin present in considerable quantity during pupation but is eliminated during first 3 days of adult life (Hadorn, 1954, Experientia 10: 483-84). The meconium contains more pteridine than wild type (Hadorn and Kürsteiner, 1955, Arch. Julius Klaus-Stift. Vererbungsforsch. Sozialanthropol. Rassenhyg. 30: 494-98). Optomotor response absent (Kalmus, 1943, J. Genet. 45: 206-13) but fly phototactic. Eye color development autonomous in larval optic disk transplanted into wild-type host (Beadle and Ephrussi, 1936, Genetics 21: 230). w is a dominant suppressor of z (Gans, 1953, Bull. Biol. France Belg., Suppl. 38: 1-90). w decreases ratio of diameter to thickness in spermathecae (Dobzhansky, 1924, Z. Induktive Abstammungs- Vererbungslehre 34: 245-48; Dobzhansky and Holz, 1943, Genetics 28: 295-303). RK1.
cytology: Placed in band 3C2 by Schultz and confirmed by Lefevre and Wilkins, on basis of the w nonlethal phenotype of recombinant carrying left end of In(1)wm4 = In(1)3C1-2;20A and right end of the 4-centric element of T(1;4)wmJ = T(1;4)3C2-3;20;102C (1966, Genetics 53: 175). Placed in 3C2-3 by Demerec and Sutton (Demerec, Kaufmann, Fano, Sutton, and Sansome, 1942, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Year Book 41: 191). Panshin also places it at 3C2-3 (1941, Dokl. Acad. Nauk SSSR 30: 57-60). Location by Prokofyeva-Belgovskaya is at 3C3 (1941, DIS 15: 34-35).
other information: First mutant found in Drosophila. Member of a pseudoallelic series containing five subloci that have been resolved by recombination as shown in map (Lewis, 1952, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S. 38: 953-61; MacKendrick and Pontecorvo, 1952, Experientia 8: 390-91; Green, 1959, Heredity 13: 303-15; Judd, 1959, Genetics 44: 34-42). Mutants occupying the right two sites act as dominant suppressors of z; those occupying the left three do not (Green, 1959). w (e.g., w1) located to the right of wa; presumably occupies the same site as wch.
color figure: P. A. Otto (original)
photograph: P. A. Otto (original)