The Drosophila pourquoi-pas?/wings-down zinc finger protein: oocyte nucleus localization and embryonic requirement

The pourquoi-pas? (pqp) gene of Drosophila melanogaster encodes a Cys2/His2 zinc finger protein and is abundantly transcribed in adult ovaries. During oogenesis, we immunodetected the pqp protein in the nucleus of nurse cells at stages 1-6, in a spherical structure within the oocyte nucleus at stages 7-9, and uniformly distributed in the oocyte nucleus and in nurse cell nuclei at later stages. The pqp protein is also present at a lower level in the nuclei of follicle cells, embryos, and larvae. By means of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screen, we recovered three independent and phenotypeless P-element insertions at the pqp locus. In a second step, two excision-induced deletions of the pqp gene were isolated after mobilization of one of these P elements. The pqp mutants display zygotic (spread and drooping wings, cross-vein defects, extra bristles) and maternal (embryonic lethality) recessive phenotypes. The chromosomal position (98EF) of the pqp gene and the drooping wing phenotype of the pqp mutants agree with the hypothesis that the pqp gene is the wings down (wdn) gene for which T.H. Morgan isolated (and lost) mutants in the 1920s. This is the first reported occurrence of a zinc finger protein in the nucleus of the Drosophila oocyte.