Chromatin packaging of a gene plays a major role in regulating its access by the transcription and DNA replication enzymatic machinery. A repressive form of chromatin that functions in epigenetic regulation known as heterochromatin is formed through binding of specific proteins to specific histone modifications. Our studies of heterochromatin focus on a highly conserved heterochromatin protein (HP1) and its interaction partner (HOAP). Microarry expression profiling studies comparing mutants for HOAP to wild type showed the majority of down-regulated genes to be testes-specific genes. The testes-specific CG14011 protein was identified as a HOAP interacting protein in a genome-wide protein-protein interaction screen. During the summer of 2006, we attempt to generate mutations in the CG14011 gene to examine its role regulating testes-specific gene expression. A PCR assay was used to characterize deficiencies reported to lack the gene CG14011. This assay showed four deficiencies to lack the CG14011 gene. EMS (ethyl methansulfonate) was used to generate mutations in males which were crossed to bTft/CyO females. The progeny were then crossed to 7724/CyO deficiency females. The F2 progeny of these crosses were then screened for lethal mutations that were not complemented by the 7724 deficiency. Any mutation/7724 F2 males that were not recovered were crossed with wild type (yw) females to test for sterility. Four lethal and zero sterile mutations were not complemented by the 7724 deficiency. However, each of them was complemented by the other deficiencies that also lacked CG14011. Therefore we did not recover any CG14011 mutants.

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