Three mutant genes cooperatively induce brain tumor formation in drosophila Malignant Brain Tumor

The Drosophila melanogaster strain Malignant Brain Tumor reveals temperature-sensitive transformation of the larval brain tissue. Genetic analysis shows that three gene defects, spzMBT, yetiMBT, and tldMBT, cooperatively induce brain tumor formation. Whereas spz and tld belong to the genes inducing differentiation patterns in the embryo, yeti induces cell overgrowth. spzMBT-, yetiMBT-, and tldMBT-containing animals are larval lethal, whereas Malignant Brain Tumor is kept as a homozygous strain at a permissive temperature. This reveals that this tumor-forming strain is the result of a number of adaptive mutation events.