Mutational dissection of gene expression in the abdominal region of the bithorax complex of Drosophila in imaginal tissue.

The phenotypic effects in imaginal hypodermal tissue of a number of Abdominal-B mutations of the bithorax complex are described. Evidence is given from complementation analysis that the phenotypic heterogeneity in both the spatial limits and the nature of the homeotic transformations produced is not an arbitrary classification of allelic differences that we find. We have used genetic mosaic analysis to support the interpretation that the Abdominal-B genetic unit can exist in a number of alternative functional states of expression during development and that individual Abdominal-B mutations may abolish some states whilst leaving others unaffected.