Hypoxanthine-guanine-phosphoribosyl-transferase (HGPRT) activity in the vestigial mutant of Drosophila melanogaster: Effect of inhibitors of the purine pathway

In cultured cells established from Drosophila melanogaster embryos, and in wild type files, no hypoxanthineguaninephosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT) could be detected. In extracts of vestigial mutants and in vg/+ flies, HGPRT and 5nucleotidase activities were detected without treatment by charcoal. A considerable diminution of HGPRT for vg flies reared at 30°C was detected, but none for the vg^np stock. A slight resistance of vg flies to azaserine and 6-mercaptopurine was observed, along with a sensitivity to increasing concentrations of 8-azaguanine. These results suggest that HGPRT is active in vivo in vestigial mutants and that the nucleotide purine pool of such flies is perturbed.