Some behavioral features of Drosophila melanogaster strains carrying a flamenco gene mutation

Olfactory sensitivity and locomotor activity was assayed in Drosophila mela nogaster strains carrying a mutation of the flamenco gene, which controls t ransposition of retrotransposon gypsy. A change in olfactory sensitivity wa s detected. The reaction to the odor of acetic acid was inverted in flies o f the mutator strain (MS), which carried the flam mutation and active gypsy copies and were characterized by genetic instability. Flies of the genetic ally unstable strains displayed a lower locomotor activity. The behavioral changes in MS flies can be explained by the pleiotropic effect of the flam mutation or by insertion mutations which arise in behavior genes as a resul t of genome destabilization by gypsy.