Terminal synthesis of xanthommatin in Drosophila melanogaster. 3. Mutational pleiotropy and pigment granule association of phenoxazinone synthetase.

Phenoxazinone synthetase, which catalyzes the condensation of 3-hydroxykynurenine to xanthommatin, the brown eye pigment of Drosophila, is shown to exist in association with a particle which resembles the cytologically defined Type I pigment granule. Several classical eye color mutants (v, cn, st, ltd, cd, w), including two which effect other enzymes in the xanthommatin pathway (v, cn), have low levels of phenoxazinone synthetase activity and disrupt the normal association of the enzyme with the pigment granule. A model is proposed depicting several structural and enzymatic interrelationships involved in the developmental control of xanthommatin synthesis in Drosophila.