Extrachromosomal control of mutability in Drosophila melanogaster - PubMed (original) (raw)

Extrachromosomal control of mutability in Drosophila melanogaster

W R Engels. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Aug.

Abstract

Hybrid dysgenesis is a syndrome of germ-line aberrations including, e.g., sterility and mutation, found in certain interstrain hybrids of Drosophila melanogaster. Previous studies of sterility have shown that elements responsible for dysgenesis may reside on all major chromosomes, but that their dysgenesis-causing ability is controlled by an unknown extrachromosomal factor. Dysgenic hybrids also give rise to unstable visible mutations thought to be DNA insertions at certain sensitive loci. One such unstable allele at the singed bristle locus, designated snw, was found to mutate at extraordinary rates exceeding 50%. This instability was shown to be under the same extrachromosomal control as hybrid dysgenesis itself. That is, the mutability of snw was reversibly suppressed when placed in the background cytotype known to prevent sterility and other characteristics of hybrid dysgenesis. These results suggest that snw may represent an insertion at the singed locus of a hypothetical gene responsible for hybrid dysgenesis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Nature. 1978 Jul 27;274(5669):317-21 - PubMed
    1. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1978;42 Pt 2:1053-63 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 1979 Mar 15;278(5701):277-9 - PubMed
    1. Genet Res. 1978 Nov;32(3):275-87 - PubMed
    1. Genetics. 1976 May;83(1):107-23 - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources