A genetic modifier screen identifies multiple genes that interact with Drosophila Rap/Fzr and suggests novel cellular roles.

In the developing Drosophila eye, Rap/Fzr plays a critical role in neural patterning by regulating the timely exit of precursor cells. Rap/Fzr (Retina aberrant in pattern/Fizzy related) is an activator of the E3 Ubiquitin ligase, the APC (Anaphase Promoting Complex-cyclosome) that facilitates the stage specific proteolytic destruction of mitotic regulators, such as cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases. To identify novel functional roles of Rap/Fzr, we conducted an F(1) genetic modifier screen to identify genes which interact with the partial-loss-function mutations in rap/fzr. We screened 2741 single P-element, lethal insertion lines and piggyBac lines on the second and third chromosome for dominant enhancers and suppressors of the rough eye phenotype of rap/fzr. From this screen, we have identified 40 genes that exhibit dosage-sensitive interactions with rap/fzr; of these, 31 have previously characterized cellular functions. Seven of the modifiers identified in this study are regulators of cell cycle progression with previously known interactions with rap/fzr. Among the remaining modifiers, 27 encode proteins involved in other cellular functions not directly related to cell-cycle progression. The newly identified variants fall into at least three groups based on their previously known cellular functions: transcriptional regulation, regulated proteolysis, and signal transduction. These results suggest that, in addition to cell cycle regulation, rap/fzr regulates ubiquitin-ligase-mediated protein degradation in the developing nervous system as well as in other tissues.