Correlation of phenotypes of the apterous mutation in Drosophila melanogaster

The apterous (ap) mutant in Drosophila melanogaster exhibits phenotypes of wing deficiency, precocious adult death, and nonvitellogenic oocyte development. The latter phenotype previously has been shown to result from juvenile hormone (JH) deficiency in the adult stage. To explore the relationship between the hormone deficiency and the other phenotypes, the expression of each phenotype was measured in five alleles of ap (including a new, chemically-induced allele, ap^77f) as wing length, survival five days after eclosion, and initiation and progress of vitellogenic oocyte development. No correlation could be found between severity of wing phenotype and that of precocious adult death or nonvitellogenesis. However, the latter phenotypes were correlated in both ap homozygotes and allelic heterozygotes, since adults that survive have wild-type vitellogenesis, and those fated for precocious death fail to develop vitellogenic oocytes. These results indicate that no relationship exists between wing and JH deficiencies, but that precocious adult death is related to hormone deficiency — probably through pleiotropy, rather than through causality.