The major serum protein of Drosophila larvae, larval serum protein 1, is dispensable

Abstract

Null alleles of all three genes (alpha, beta and gamma) coding for the major serum protein of Drosophila larvae, larval serum protein 1, have been characterized at the protein level and by analysis of their RNA and DNA. Each allele completely lacks one polypeptide chain. beta shows an unaltered gene but reduced levels of RNA, alpha shows restriction-fragment-length polymorphism and shows low levels of transcript, while gamma is a deletion. The three null alleles have been combined to give a strain without the gene for larval serum protein 1 which survives.