Suppressor of Hairless, the Drosophila homolog of the mouse recombination signal-binding protein gene, controls sensory organ cell fates.

Suppressor of Hairless (Su(H)) is required at two stages of adult sensory organ development in Drosophila. Complete loss of Su(H) function results in a "neurogenic" phenotype in imaginal discs, in which too many cells adopt the sensory organ precursor cell fate. Su(H) is also involved in controlling the fates of sensillum accessory cells and is specifically expressed in two of these cells. Su(H) is the Drosophila homolog of the mouse J kappa RBP gene, whose product binds specifically to the recombination signal sequence of immunoglobulin J kappa segments. The Su(H) and J kappa RBP proteins are 82% identical over most of their length, and share with bacteriophage integrates and yeast recombinases a motif that includes residues directly involved in catalyzing recombination.