The fly Drosophila melanogaster is one of the most intensively studied organisms in biology and serves as a model system for the investigation of many developmental and cellular processes common to higher eukaryotes, including humans. We have determined the nucleotide sequence of nearly all of the ∼120-megabase euchromatic portion of the Drosophila genome using a whole-genome shotgun sequencing strategy supported by extensive clone-based sequence and a high-quality bacterial artificial chromosome physical map. Efforts are under way to close the remaining gaps; however, the sequence is of sufficient accuracy and contiguity to be declared substantially complete and to support an initial analysis of genome structure and preliminary gene annotation and interpretation. The genome encodes ∼13,600 genes, somewhat fewer than the smaller Caenorhabditis elegans genome, but with comparable functional diversity.

Apoptotic cell death is a mechanism by which organisms eliminate superfluous or harmful cells. Expression of the cell death regulatory protein REAPER (RPR) in the developing Drosophila eye results in a small eye owing to excess cell death. We show that mutations in thread (th) are dominant enhancers of RPR-induced cell death and that th encodes a protein homologous to baculovirus inhibitors of apoptosis (IAPs), which we call Drosophila IAP1 (DIAP1). Overexpression of DIAP1 or a related protein, DIAP2, in the eye suppresses normally occurring cell death as well as death due to overexpression of rpr or head involution defective. IAP death-preventing activity localizes to the N-terminal baculovirus IAP repeats, a motif found in both viral and cellular proteins associated with death prevention.

We have identified and characterized two genes in Drosophila whose products are required for activated RAS to signal with normal efficiency, but do not appear to effect signaling by activated RAF. One encodes the beta subunit of type I geranylgeranyl transferase, a prenylation enzyme essential for targeting RAS to the plasma membrane. The other encodes a protein kinase that we have named kinase suppressor of ras (ksr). By genetic criteria, we show that KSR functions in multiple receptor tyrosine kinase pathways. We have isolated mammalian homologs of KSR that, together with the Drosophila gene, define a novel class of kinases. Our results suggest that KSR is a general and evolutionarily conserved component of the RAS signaling pathway that acts between RAS and RAF.

Precursor messenger RNA splicing requires multiple factors including U1, U2, U4, U5, and U6 small nuclear RNA's. The crosslinking reagent psoralen was used to analyze the interactions of these RNA's with an adenovirus precursor messenger RNA in HeLa nuclear extract. An endogenous U2-U4-U6 crosslinkable complex dissociated upon incubation with precursor messenger RNA. During splicing, U1, U2, U5, and U6 became crosslinked to precursor messenger RNA and U2, U5, and U6 became crosslinked to excised lariat intron. U2 also formed a doubly crosslinked complex with U6 and precursor messenger RNA. The U1, U5, and U6 crosslinks to the precursor messenger RNA mapped to intron sequences near the 5' splice site, whereas the U2 crosslink mapped to the branch site. The kinetics of crosslink formation and disappearance delineates a temporal pathway for the action of small RNA's in the spliceosome. Potential base pairing interactions between conserved sequences in the small nuclear RNA's and precursor messenger RNA at the sites of crosslinking suggest that the 5' splice site is defined in several steps prior to the first cleavage event.