Genetic variants affecting phenoloxidase activity in Drosophila melanogaster

In Drosophila melanogaster, two new variants affecting the activity of phenoloxidase were found in natural populations at Gomel in Belorussia and at Krasnodar in Russia. Prophenoloxidases, A1 and A3, in these variants had the same mobilities on native electrophoresis as the wild type. However, enzymatic activities in their activated states were much lower than in the wild type, whereas the existence of prophenoloxidase proteins was demonstrated. Egg-to-adult and relative viabilities in the variants did not decrease at temperature between 18 and 29 degrees C. Genetic analyses indicated that the genes showing the phenotype of variants are new alleles of Mox and Dox-3 on the second chromosome.