Fertility test

The coordination defect of rcd4 mutants was rescued with a pan-neural driver elav-GAL4 and WT transgene UAS-GFP-Rcd4 before fertility test to ensure coordination defects did not interfere with mating ability. To test female fertility, WT, neuronally rescued rcd4 mutants and rescued777 virgin females (aged 4 d) were collected and individually mated with two WT males (aged 2–4 d). The crosses were kept at 25°C for 6 d, after which the adults were removed. The number of eclosed progeny in each vial was recorded and statistically analyzed. Male fertility was similarly tested as described; individual males were mated with two WT virgin females (aged 4 d before mating to test for virginity). 10 crosses per genotype were evaluated in two independent experiments. Vials in which any adults died were excluded from the analysis.