Drosophila chem mutations disrupt epithelial polarity in Drosophila embryos

Drosophila embryogenesis has proven to be an extremely powerful system for developmental gene discovery and characterization. We isolated five new EMS-induced alleles that do not complement the l(3R)5G83 lethal line isolated in the Nüsslein-Volhard and Wieschaus screens. We have named this locus chem. Lethality of the new alleles as homozygous zygotic mutants is not completely penetrant, and they have an extended phenocritical period. Like the original allele, a fraction of mutant embryos die with cuticular defects, notably head involution and dorsal closure defects. Embryonic defects are much more extreme in germline clones, where the majority of mutant embryos die during embryogenesis and do not form cuticle, implying a strong chem maternal contribution. chem mutations genetically interact with mutations in cytoskeletal genes (arm) and with mutations in the epithelial polarity genes coracle, crumbs, and yurt. chem mutants dorsal open defects are similar to those present in yurt mutants, and, likewise, they have epithelial polarity defects. chem(1) and chem(3) mutations suppress yurt(3), and chem(3) mutants suppress crumbs(1) mutations. In contrast, chem(1) and coracle(2) mutations enhance each other. Compared to controls, in chem mutants in embryonic lateral epithelia Crumbs expression is mislocalized and reduced, Coracle is increased and mislocalized basally at embryonic stages 13–14, then reduced at stage 16. Arm expression has a similar pattern but levels are reduced.