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Directed mutagenesis under the action of mobile elements in unstable lines of Drosophila melanogaster

Journal Article · · Dokl. Biol. Sci. (Engl. Transl.); (United States)
OSTI ID:5726683

The unstable mutation ct/sup MR2/, obtained under hybrid dysgenesis and caused by the incorporation of MDG 4 into locus cut, was described earlier. A peculiarity of this line and its derivatives is that multiple transpositions of different mobile elements, the transposition spurts, take place in them with a frequency of 10/sup -2/-10/sup -4/. A consequence of this process is active insertion mutagenesis taking place under the action of different transposons with high locus specifity. The mutations are unstable and frequently revert to wild type. However, there are some unstable revertants in which the mobile element is eliminated almost completely, and yet unstable mutations appear at the same locus at a high rate. In the case of cut locus, this happens due to repeated integration of MDG 4. The authors report cases of such repeated directed mutagenesis for several loci. Reversions were observed in the homozygous line as well as during the process of obtaining homozygous lines of new mutations using the chromosome with multiple inversions FM4, Y/sup 31d/sc/sup 8/ dmB. In situ hybridization with the (/sup 3/H)-labeled DNA was carried out as described earlier. The plasmid DNA containing cloned MDG4 and their long terminal repeats were used as probes for hybridization. Hybridization was done on the salivary gland polytene chromosomes of larvae. The new spontaneous mutations appearing in the process of hybridization were tested for allelism with the standard mutations y, w, cm, ct, D, and g.

Research Organization:
N. I. Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Moscow, USSR
OSTI ID:
5726683
Journal Information:
Dokl. Biol. Sci. (Engl. Transl.); (United States), Journal Name: Dokl. Biol. Sci. (Engl. Transl.); (United States) Vol. 280:1-6; ISSN DKBSA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English