Detection of clones in the nervous system ofDrosophila melanogaster

Mitotic recombination was induced, by X-irradiation at the blastoderm stage, in flies heterozygous for one of the temperature-sensitive paralytic mutationsshibire andtp-2. The results show that these mutations can be used to detect the presence of clones in the central nervous system through the temperature-sensitive paralysis of individual legs. Mitotic recombination can also be used to examine the effects of these mutations in the peripheral nervous system; shibire is thus shown to affect the function of sensory neurons.