CHROMOPHORE-ASSISTED LASER INACTIVATION OF EVEN-SKIPPED IN DROSOPHILAPRECISELY PHENOCOPIES GENETIC LOSS OF FUNCTION

The even skipped (eve) gene in Drosophila encodes a homeo-domain prote in that acts as a trancriptional regulator during early embryogenesis. We show that an injection of a monoclonal antibody against the eve ho meodomain in conjunction with chromophore-assisted laser inactivation (CALI) precisely phenocopies the eve mutant phenotype. Depending on th e time of the laser treatment, both the early pair-rule function, as w ell as the later segmental function of eve can be blocked. This sugges t that ii might be possible to employ CALI to analyse the function of transcriptional regulators In species that are not amenable to genetic analysis.