MOLECULAR CLONING OF α-AMYLASE GENES FROM DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER. I. CLONE ISOLATION BY USE OF A MOUSE PROBE

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A cloned ä-amylase cDNA sequence from the mouse is homologous to a small set of DNA sequences from Drosophila melanogaster under appropriate conditions of hybridization. A number of recombinant lambda phage that carry homologous Drosophila genomic DNA sequences were isolated using the mouse clone as a hybridization probe. Putative amylase clones hybridized in situ to one or the other of two distinct sites in polytene chromosome 2R and were assigned to one of two classes, A and B. Clone λDm32, representing class A, hybridizes within chromosome section 53CD. Clone λDm65 of class B hybridizes within section 54A1-B1. Clone λDm65 is homologous to a 1450- to 1500-nucleotide RNA species, which is sufficiently long to code for α-amylase. No RNA homologous to λDm32 was detected. We suggest that the class B clone, λDm65, contains the functional Amy structural gene(s) and that class A clones contain an amylase pseudogene.