A gene related to the proto-oncogene fps/fes is expressed at diverse times during the life cycle of Drosophila melanogaster.

The proto-oncogene fps/fes encodes a distinctive type of protein-tyrosine kinase. We identified a Drosophila gene (dfps85D) whose product resembles the proteins encoded by vertebrate fps/fes and the closely related gene fer. dfps85D is located at chromosomal position 85D10-13 and is unlikely to correspond to any previously defined genetic locus in Drosophila melanogaster. Expression of the gene is entirely zygotic in origin and occurs throughout the life cycle. But hybridization in situ revealed that the pattern of expression is specialized and evolves in a provocative manner. The most notable feature of expression is the diversity of developmental periods, tissues, and cells in which it occurs. In some tissues, expression is transient; in others, it is continuous. Expression occurs in both mitotic and terminally differentiated tissue and, at various times in development, is prominent in imaginal disks, gut, muscle, testes, ovaries, retina, and other neural tissues. It appears that the use of dfps85D is more diversified than that of other Drosophila protein-tyrosine kinases reported to date and contrasts sharply with the restricted expression of fps itself in vertebrates. The detailed description of expression provided here will help guide the search for mutants in dfps85D.