A genetic study of the anesthetic response: mutants of Drosophila melanogaster altered in sensitivity to halothane.

In an attempt to identify genes that control or encode the targets of general anesthetics, we have chemically mutagenized fruit flies and selected four lines that show an abnormal response to the volatile anesthetic halothane. Specifically, about 2-fold higher concentrations of halothane are required to induce the loss of motor control in the mutant flies. Fine mapping of two isolates indicates that they alter a previously uncharacterized gene of Drosophila. In the absence of anesthetics, these mutants display alterations of behavior that imply changes in the adult and the larval neuromuscular system.