Abstract
P-element-mediated DNA transformation was used to generate transformants carrying segments of DNA from the white locus of D. melanogaster. The vast majority of transduced copies of an 11.7 or a 14.3 kb [kilobase] segment of DNA from white successfully rescued the white- eye-color phenotype when inserted in many different chromosomal locations. However, 2 transformants with abnormal eye pigmentation, apparently a consequence of the genomic positions of the transduced white gene, were also recovered. In all 7 cases tested, autosomal insertions of white, which is dosage-compensated in its normal location on the X chromosome, retained the property of dosage compensation. In contrast to the relative insensitivity of eye-color pigmentation and dosage compensation to genomic position, the transduced white DNA segments differed widely in their interactions with the zeste1 mutation, ranging from greater than normal repression by zeste1 to insensitivity to the presence of zeste1.