Selection for Reduced Crossing over in DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Selection was practiced for reducing crossing over between the third chromosome genes Sb and H(2) of Drosophila melanogaster; the method employed was to select the repulsion double heterozygotes Sb+/+H(2) every generation. Two replicate selection lines were maintained. After 24 generations of selection, Line 1 showed no significant difference from the control, although the regression of recombination value on generation was significant. In generation 20, Line 2 had a significantly lower recombination value than the control, as well as having a highly significant regression coefficient. No chromosome rearrangements were involved in the response. It was concluded that there was substantial genic variability in the frequency of crossing over between Sb and H(2) in the base population.     

The Effect of Recombination-Defective Meiotic Mutants on Fourth-Chromosome Crossing over in DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Crossing over was measured on the normally achiasmate fourth chromosome in females homozygous for one of our different recombination-defective meiotic mutants. Under the influence of those meiotic mutants that affect the major chromosomes by altering the spatial distribution of exchanges, meiotic fourth-chromosome recombinants were recovered irrespective of whether or not the meiotic mutant decreases crossing over on the other chromosomes. No crossing over, on the other hand, was detected on chromosome 4 in either wild type or in the presence of a meiotic mutant that decreases the frequency, but does not affect the spatial distribution, of exchange on the major chromosomes. It is concluded from these observations that (a) in wild type there are regional constraints on exchange that can be attenuated or eliminated by the defects caused by recombination-defective meiotic mutants; [b] these very constraints account for the absence of recombination on chromosome 4 in wild type; and [c] despite being normally achiasmate, chromosome 4 responds to recombination-defective meiotic mutants in the same way as do the other chromosomes.     

Selection for Male Recombination in DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Two-way selection for male recombination over seven intervals of the third chromosome in Drosophila melanogaster was practiced for nine generations followed by relaxed selection for five generations. Significant responses in both directions were observed but these mainly occurred in early generations in the low line and in later generations in the high line. Divergence of male recombination frequencies between the two selection lines was not restricted to any specific region but occurred in every measured interval of the chromosome. However, right-arm intervals showed a more pronounced response than either left-arm intervals or the centromeric region. Correlated responses in sterility and distortion of transmission ratios occurred as a result of selection for male recombination. Cluster distributions of male recombinants suggested a mixture of meiotic and late gonial events but relative map distances more closely resembled those of the salivary chromosome than standard meiotic or mitotic distances. Patterns of male recombination over time in both second and third chromosomes strongly suggested a major effect associated with the presence of third chromosomes from the Harwich strain. Evidence was also found for modifiers with relatively small effects located in other regions of the genome. The overall results are interpreted in terms of a two-component model of hybrid dysgenesis.     

High Mutability in Male Hybrids of DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

The frequencies of sex-linked lethal mutations arising in hybrid male offspring from various crosses and in nonhybrid controls were determined. The hybrids were produced by crossing representative strains of the P-M system of hybrid dysgenesis in all possible combinations. Males from the cross of P males x M females had a mutation rate about 15 times higher than that of nonhybrid males from the P strain. Genetically identical males from the reciprocal cross had a mutation rate 3 to 4 times that of the nonhybrids. For crosses involving a Q strain, a significant increase in the mutation rate was detected in males produced by matings of Q males with M females. No increase was observed in genetically identical males from the reciprocal mating. Crosses between P and Q strains gave male hybrids with mutation rates not different from those of nonhybrids. Many of the lethals that occurred in hybrids from the cross of P males x M females appeared to be unstable; fewer lethals that arose in hybrids from the cross of Q males x M females were unstable. The relationship between P and Q strains is discussed with respect to a model of mutation induction in dysgenic hybrids.     

Multiple Meiotic Drive Systems in the DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER Male

The behaviour of two "meiotic drive" systems, Segregation-Distorter (SD) and the sex chromosome sc(4)sc(8) has been examined in the same meiocyte. It has been found that the two systems interact in a specific way. When the distorting effects of SD and sc(4)sc(8) are against each other, there is no detectable interaction. Each system is apparently oblivious to the presence of the other, gametes being produced according to independence expectations. However when the affected chromosomes are at the same meiotic pole an interaction occurs; the survival probability of the gamete containing both distorted chromosomal products is increased, rather than being decreased by the combined action of two systems.     

Mutation Induction in the Male Recombination Strains of DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

One group of the second chromosome lines isolated from a southern Texas population of Drosophila melanogaster, which has been known to show relatively high frequencies of male recombinations, was found to increase the frequency of sex-linked recessive lethal mutations from a control frequency of 0.18% to 1.63%. The second group, which showed a very much reduced frequency of male recombinations, was found to cause a slight increase to 0.48%, although it was not statistically significant. The first group was also tested for the recessive lethal mutation frequency in the second chromosome; the frequency increased from a control frequency of 0.28% to 2.82%. Mapping of a portion of the sex-linked lethals indicated a distribution along the entire X chromosome, although there was a tendency of clustering towards the tip of the X chromosome. One sex-linked lethal line so far tested was found to be associated with an inversion (approximate breakpoints, 14A-18A). It was suggested that the element causing male recombination might be similar to the hi mutator gene studied earlier by Ives (1950).     

Analysis of Y-Linked Mutations to Male Sterility in DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Mating type in haploid cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is determined by a pair of alleles MATa and MAT alpha. Under various conditions haploid mating types can be interconverted. It has been proposed that transpositions of silent cassettes of mating-type information from HML OR HMR to MAT are the source of mating type conversions. A mutation described in this work, designated AON1, has the following properties. (1) MAT alpha cells carring AON1 are defective in mating. (2) AON1 allows MAT alpha/MAT alpha but not MATa/MATa diploids to sporulate; thus, AON1 mimics the MATa requirement for sporulation. (3) mata-1 cells that carry AON1 are MATa phenocopies, i.e., MAT alpha/mata-1 AON1 diploids behave as standard MAT alpha/MATa cells; therefore, AON1 suppresses the defect of mata-1. (4) AON1 maps at or near HMRa. (5) Same-site revertants from AON1 lose the ability to convert mating type to MATa, indicating that reversion is associated with the loss of a functional HMRa locus. In addition, AON1 is a dominant mutation. We conclude that AON1 is a regulatory mutation, probably cis-acting, that leads to the constitutive expression of silent a mating-type information located at HMRa.