Figure 4

Resistance to paraquat-induced stress of flies mutant for genes identified in microarray experiments a) 29 Drosophila lines bearing mutations in genes identified in our microarray experiments as being stress-responsive were recovered from public stock centers. When the mutation was linked to a w⁺ transposon insertion these lines were outcrossed with a w⁺ Canton S reference line. 3–6 day old male flies were then tested for their resistance to oxidative stress 68 h after transfer to 10 mM paraquat medium. Tested flies were either homozygous (notation #i/#i in the X axis) for viable mutations or heterozygous (notation #i/w) for lethal mutations (in this case they are issued from a cross with w⁺ Canton S females). For simplicity, identification of lines (#i) refers to the Bloomington stock number and the genotype of the line is provided in Tab. 4. We present in this Figure the results of one of three independent experiments that we used for the complete statistical analysis presented in Table 4. Compared to male flies issued from a cross between w^- males and Canton S females (noted w/+, dark bar), significant differences in resistance or sensitivity to paraquat can be observed for a large number of the lines tested. Error bars: standard error. b) Example of survival curves on 10 mM paraquat-containing medium of some mutant male flies. Flies heterozygous for a lethal mutation in the Angiotensin converting enzyme related (Acer) gene are sensitive to paraquat, while flies homozygous for an insertion in the gene CG9238 are clearly more resistant to paraquat than w/+ control flies. Neither of these genes was previously suspected to play a role in oxidative stress resistance.