A small genetic region that controls dihydroorotate dehydrogenase in Drosophila melanogaster

A locus is described that controls levels of mitochondrial dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (EC 1.3.3.1) in Drosophila melanogaster. The effects of alleles of the locus, Dhod, are manifest in preparations from whole organisms as well as in partially purified mitochondrial preparations; however, other mitochondrial functions do not appear to be appreciably affected by Dhod genotypes. The locus maps near p in the proximal portion of the right arm of chromosome 3. Flies trisomic for a chromosome segment including that region display elevated enzyme levels, implying that an enzyme structural gene is in that vicinity. Furthermore, Dhod alleles are semidominant in heterozygotes, suggesting that the dosage-sensitive element detected in the trisomics is actually the Dhod locus. These findings are discussed relative to the role of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase in the de novo pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway and relative to other pathway mutants that have been described in Drosophila.