LINKAGE OF AUTOSOMAL LETHALS FROM A LABORATORY POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Journal Article · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1963 · Genetics (U.S.)

OSTI ID:4657595

Spiess, E B; Helling, R B; Capenos, M R

Lethal second and third chromosomes were extracted by marker techniques from a laboratory population of Drosophila melanogaster (originally Oregon-R Control populalation of Wallace), which had been maintained at 25 deg C for over 170 generations. Each lethal chromosome balanced over a dominant marker- crossover suppressor was outcrossed to a multiple recessive stock, and recombinants were tested for lethality in order to determine linkage relations of lethal producing loci. Eighteen second chromosomes displayed a clustering of sites in subterminal left arm (two loci), mid-left arm (three loci), both to left and right of the centromere (seven loci), and very close to the centromere (<0.1 Morgan unit; three loci). Twenty-three third chromosomes were distributed as follows: in subterminal left arm (one locus), mid-left arm (five loci), mid-right arm (one locus), and subterminal right (two loci). At least three second chromosomes were multilocus lethals, with one a double, one a triple, and one a quadruple lethal. The double and triple each carried aa allele of the left subterminal site; the quadruple carried an allele of a site in the centromere cluster. Chromosome 3 had only one double multilocus lethal chromosome. The finding of high order multilocus lethals cannot easily be explained as a random phenomenon; it is more likely that specific linkages are being selected for, which either exist in high enough frequency to be observed as multiple lethals in a small sample, or which exist in potentially recombinable form to produce such chromosomes regularly by crossing over. It is evident that some lethals have frequencies higher than expected by random drift, and their importance to total fftness in the population is demonstrated by their persistency in the population over a period of four years. This long survival is true for at least three loci on chromosome 2 and at least two loci on chromosome 3. A general statement concerning the expectation of synthetic lethals from these chromosomes is discussed. (auth)

• Research Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh
• NSA Number: NSA-17-038790
• OSTI ID: 4657595
• Journal Information: Genetics (U.S.), Journal Name: Genetics (U.S.) Vol. Vol: 48; ISSN GENTA
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
CHROMOSOMES
CROSSING-OVER
DROSOPHILA
DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER
GENETICS
INSECTS
METASTASES
MUTATIONS
POPULATIONS
TEMPERATURE