HU-LI-TAI-SHAO, A GENE REQUIRED FOR RING CANAL FORMATION DURING DROSOPHILA OOGENESIS, ENCODES A HOMOLOG OF ADDUCIN

Drosophila females bearing mutations in a previously undescribed gene, hu-li tai shao [(hts) too little nursing], produced egg chambers that contained fewer than the normal 15 nurse cells and that usually lacked an oocyte. The cytoplasmic bridges (ring canals) interconnecting nurse cells and the oocyte appeared abnormal, and lacked associated actin rings. The hts locus was found to encode a homolog of the mammalian membrane skeletal protein adducin. During oogenesis, hts mRNA became localized at the anterior of the oocyte and was subsequently expressed in a variety of embryonic tissues. These studies suggested that Drosophila adducin is needed to assemble actin at specialized regions of cell-cell contact in developing egg chambers and may also function at other times during the Drosophila life cycle.