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

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.