CO₂ Sensitivity in Drosophila as a Latent Virus Infection

Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

Statement of the Problem

Individuals from certain Drosophila strains are unusual (CO₂ sensitive) in that they will not recover after being anaesthetized with CO₂ but, rather, will remain paralyzed and eventually die. Ph. L'Héritier and G. Teissier discovered this phenomenon and suggested that the paralysis was mediated somehow by the flies' thoracic ganglia. No more detailed explanation has ever been advanced. They found, too, that the CO₂ sensitivity could be transmitted through eggs and sperm and described the inheritance patterns. From their failure to find chromosome linkage they concluded that the sensitivity was probably carried by an intracellular particle, perhaps a virus (1945).

The virus nature of this particle (now called the sigma particle) became more probable as data was accumulated by these investigators and their coworkers. They found that if an extract of CO₂-sensitive flies were inoculated into CO₂-resistant ones, sigma particles multiplied within the recipient flies and...