saliva, a new Drosophila gene expressed in the embryonic salivary glands with homologues in plants and vertebrates

Abstract saliva ( slv ) transcription begins at the salivary gland placodes and continues on throughout development as salivary glands invaginate and reach their final location and morphology. saliva is located cytogenetically in 76A/B, and encodes a 226-amino-acid protein with four hydrophobic domains. A Northern blot detects a 1.6-kb transcript throughout development. Database similarity searches reveal homology to proteins from Caenorhabditis , Lilium , Medicago and mouse.