White (mutation)



White, abbreviated w, was the first sex-linked mutation ever discovered in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. In 1910 Thomas Hunt Morgan, (more accurately, his wife) collected a single male white-eyed mutant from a population of Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies, which usually have bright red eyes. Upon crossing this male with wild-type female flies he found that the offspring did not conform to the expectations of Mendelian inheritance. The first generation (the F1) produced 1,237 red-eyed offspring and three white-eyed flies, all males. The second generation (the F2) produced 2,459 red-eyed females, 1,011 red-eyed males, and 782 white-eyed males. Further experimental crosses led Morgan to the conclusion that this mutation was somehow physically connected to the "factor" that determined gender in Drosophila. Morgan named this trait white, now abbreviated w. Flies carrying the white allele are frequently used to introduce high school and college students to genetics.

The protein made by white functions as an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter. It carries the precursors of the red and brown eye color pigments, guanine and tryptophan, into the developing eyes during pupation. The human version of white is ABCG1, and is involved in transporting lipids and cholesterol into cells.