Toxicity of streptomycin and terramycin,and influence on growth and developmental time ofDrosophila melanogaster

Zusammenfassung Die toxische Wirkung von oral an Larven vonDrosophi'a melanogaster verabreichtem Terramycin ist bedeutend grösser als jene von Streptomycin. Bei beiden Antibiotica lässt die geringe Puppenmortalität auf einen wirksamen Entgiftungsmechanismus schliessen.     

Toxicity of ouabain on Drosophila melanogaster

Summary Ouabain, also called g-strophantin, is an inhibitor of the Na⁺/K⁺-activated plasma membrane ATPase. Treatment of Drosophila melanogaster with 3–6 mM of this substance leads to a markedly reduced survival of the flies.     

Antagonism of terramycin on action ofBacillus thuringiensis ‘exotoxin’ inDrosophila melanogaster

Zusammenfassung Subletale Konzentrationen von Terramycin hemmen inDrosophila teilweise die toxische Wirkung des hitzestabilen Exotoxins vonBacillus thuringiensis, wobei die Steilheit der Dosis-Mortalitätskurven nicht verändert wird. Es wird die Hypothese begründet, dass es sich um eine kompetitive Hemmung des Exotoxins durch das Antibioticum handeln könnte.     

Toxicity of psychotropic drugs inDrosophila melanogaster

Zusammenfassung Toxische Wirkungen von Chlorpromazin und von Tranylcypromin aufDrosophila melanogaster werden beschrieben.     

Toxicity of Dithane M-45 onDrosophila melanogaster

Summary The toxicity of different concentrations of Dithane M-45 onDrosophila melanogaster was determined. The chemical was administered by larval feeding. It has been estimated that the LC₅₀ is 17.5 mg/100 ml food medium. The studies have suggested that Dithane M-45 has a pronounced effect on the rate of development and viability.Acknowledgments. The authors are grateful to Dr M.R. Rajasekarasetty, F.N.A., Professor and Head of the Department of Postgraduate Studies and Research in Zoology, Manasa Gangotri, University of Mysore, Mysore, for his constant encouragement and valuable suggestions. One of us (V.V.) is thankful to the UGC for the financial assistance.     

Enzymes of Sphingolipid metabolism in Drosophila melanogaster

Sphingolipids are important structural components of membranes that delimit the boundaries of cellular compartments, cells and organisms. They play an equally important role as second messengers, and transduce signals across or within the compartments they define to initiate physiological changes during development, differentiation and a host of other cellular events. For well over a century Drosophila melanogaster has served as a useful model organism to understand some of the fundamental tenets of development, differentiation and signaling in eukaryotic organisms. Directed approaches to study sphingolipid biology in Drosophila have been initiated only recently. Nevertheless, earlier phenotypic studies conducted on genes of unknown biochemical function have recently been recognized as mutants of enzymes of sphingolipid metabolism. Genome sequencing and annotation have aided the identification of homologs of recently discovered genes. Here we present an overview of studies on enzymes of the de novo sphingolipid biosynthetic pathway, known mutants and their phenotypic characterization in Drosophila.Received 14 June 2004; received after revision 15 August 2004; accepted 21 August 2004     

The effect of object distance on pattern preferences in the walking fly,Drosophila melanogaster

Zusammenfassung Fliegen bevorzugen sehwinkelkonstante Vertikal- gegenüber Horizontalstreifen bei grossen, nicht dagegen bei kleinen Musterentfernungen. Diese entfernungsabhängige Vertikalstreifenpräferenz wird als Folge eines Mechanismus zur optischen Kurskontrolle verstanden, der von Art und Geschwindigkeit der retinalen Bildverschiebung abhängt.

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Financial support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Schweizerischer Nationalfonds is gratefully acknowledged.