Genetic manipulation of motor output in shaker mutants of Drosophila

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Abstract
Hk1, Hk2, Sh5, and Eag are sex‐linked behavior mutants of Drosophila which shake their legs vigorously when etherized. The shaking rate increases with age to a plateau by five days after eclosion; it is decreased by increasing ether concentrations. Eag is temperature sensitive, shaking vigorously at 30°C but not at all below 20°C. Hk1 and Hk2 have cyclic shaking patterns consisting of three to six periods of shaking per minute. Hk1 stakes more, and has longer shaking periods than Hk2; the heterozygote Hk1/Hk2 is intermediate. When heterozygous with a deletion for the locus, both Hk1 and Hk2 shake more, the pattern of Hk2 resembling that of Hk1. Therefore, these alleles may differ only quantitatively. The shaking pattern of Sh5 is distinctly different, consisting of short bursts of shaking two or three times a second. Flies with both Hk and Sh5 mutations in different combinations can have a pattern which is Hk‐type, Sh5‐type, or both simultaneously, depending upon the geno‐type. The shaking of Hk1 is known to be a consequence of abnormally firing neurons in the thoracic ganglion. Therefore, the interactions between Hk and Sh5 are probably between two different mutant effects upon the motor system, both subject to genetic manipulation.