Chapter 19, Problem 4P

Hypomorphic mutations in the wingless gene of Drosophila result in animals lacking wings.

a.

Starting with a set of wingless mutations, how could researchers have identified the wingless gene in the Drosophila genome sequence?

b.

Part of the amino acid sequence encoded by the ORF of the wingless gene is: (N)…EAGRAHVQAEMRQECKCHGMSGSCTVKTCWMRL…(C) Perform a protein blast at the following website to ask whether the human genome has a gene related to the fly wingless gene: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi?PROGRAM=blastp&PAGE_TYPE=BlastSearch&LINK_LOC=blasthome Enter Homo sapiens (taxid:9606) as the organism. Leave all the other settings in their default state, and hit the blue BLAST button at the bottom of the page. The results of the database search will appear in a few minutes. What do the results of the search tell you about the existence of human genes homologous to the fly wingless gene?