Contrabithorax and the control of spatial expression of the bithorax complex genes of Drosophila

Cbx1 is a dominant mutation of the bithorax complex (BX-C) of Drosophila partially transforming the second thoracic (T2) segment towards the third one (T3). Molecular analysis has shown that Cbx1 arose from a transposition within the BX-C of a DNA fragment of 17 kb containing pbx+ inserted into the Ubx area. In addition to the dominant phenotype, the Cbx1 mutation produces a set of recessive homeotic transformations that we show are characteristic of the Ubx mutations. We present evidence that the dominant and the recessive transformations arise from different mechanisms and suggest the dominant transformation is caused by an alteration of the normal regulatory role of pbx+ resulting in an adventitious expression of some Ubx+ products in T2, while the Ubx phenotype is caused by the breakpoint of the insertion.