Summary
A comparison between the frequencies of lethals and translocations in successive broods agreed with the assumption that in sensitive cells all genetical effects of mustard gas, point mutations as well as chromosome breaks, are enhanced to the same extent. The data disagreed with the assumption that only the frequency of intergenic changes is increased. Although the experiment was designed to detect translocations involving the Y-chromosome, no such translocations were obtained as against 28 translocations between the two large autosomes.
Since the sensitive stage to mustard gas occurs before meiosis, our data indicate that mustard gas — in contrast to X-rays — produced translocations as readily in lata premeiotic as in postmeiotic cells. Possible reasons for this are discussed.
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Sonbati, E.M., Auerbach, C. The brood pattern for intragenic and intergenic changes after mustard gas treatment of Drosophila. Zeitschrift für Vererbungslehre 91, 253–258 (1960). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00890036
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00890036