Imprecise excision of the progenitor insertion, resulting in a deletion from 1078bp upstream to 9020bp downstream of the original insertion site. This deletion spans the first two exons of the b transcript as well as the two following exons that are common to both the a and b transcripts. No transcription can be detected from the NFAT b promoter. An aberrant transcript can be detected from the a promoter, which is spliced out of frame directly from the first to the fourth exon and which produces a truncated open reading frame of 64 amino acids.
Reported as a deletion from 1078bp upstream to 9020bp downstream of the 30 end of the EP1541 insertion sequence. Position of insertion on reference sequence inferred by FlyBase curator.
NFATΔab mutants (either homozygous or heterozygous) exhibit expanded synapses compared to controls while average muscle surface area remains unaffected.
A NFATΔab heterozygous background increases transmitter release (mean EJC amplitude) while spontaneous mini EJCs are unaffected. The number of active zones are not affected in these mutants.
Mutants have no obvious morphological defects.
Mutant larvae show reduced survival at high salt concentrations compared to control larvae. Survival of the mutant larvae is significantly reduced at 0.2M NaCl and at 0.4M NaCl only 5% of the mutant first instar larvae survive to adulthood.
Mutant larvae show a remarkable swelling of the anal pads in hypotonic conditions.
Mutant larvae have melanised posterior spiracles after treatment at 60[o]C for 10 minutes. Occasionally the anal pads or the anterior spiracle openings are also coloured.
