Insertional DNA and spontaneous mutation at the white locus in Drosophila simulans

A large body of data on molecular analyses of several multiallelic loci in Drosophila melanogaster has demonstrated a high incidence of mobile DNA element insertions among spontaneous mutations. In the sibling species D. simulans, the dispersed, middle repetitive, nomadic sequences are reduced to about one-seventh that of its sibling species (Dowsett and Young 1982). Does this reduced amount of middle repetitive DNA (or mobile DNA sequences) mean that in D. simulans the occurrence of insertion mutants will be rare compared with that of D. melanogaster? To test this possibility, we collected seven different spontaneous white mutants of D. simulans and studied their molecular gene structures. Five out of seven mutants had insertion sequences which varied in length from 0.4 kb to 16 kb. One bore a deletion spanning the w region and another showed no gross structural alteration. Thus the proportion of insertional mutations at the white locus in D. simulans is equivalent to that observed in D. melanogaster. Among the five insertional mutants, one, wmky, showed genetic instability; the other four were stable. wmky was found to mutate at a frequency of 2.1 x 10(-5) in meiotic cells and may also be unstable in somatic cells.