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An analysis of white-mottled mutants inDrosophila hydei, with observations on X-Y exchanges in the male

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Abstract

Chromosomes and phenotypes of four different sex-linkedwhite-mottled mutants of the position-effect variogation type were studied. Three mutants (w m1,w m2,w m3) are X-chromosomal rearrangements which shift the w+ locus into a position close to heterochromatin, but which have different ouchromatic and heterochromatic breaks. The fourth, a spontaneous derivative ofw m1, is an insertional duplication of part of the X chromosome, including thew + andN +loci. The duplicated segment is inserted into the distal part of the long arm of the heterochromatic Y chromosome. It is designated,w m CoY, orXw m Co when transferred to the X chromosome.

Three chromosomal types (w m1,w m CoY) and (Xw m Co) having the same cuchromatic break near thew + locus, cause large-spotted eyes whereas two others (w m2,w m3) produce a popper-and-salt type of mottling. From the position of the various eu- and heterochromatic breaks, it appears that the distance of thew + locus to the point of reunion with heterochromatin, rather than the amount or type of adjoining heterochromatin, dietates the phenotypic action of the displacedw + locus, in the sense of a spreading effect on two proposed functional subunits within thew + locus.

The pigmentation background against which the mottling effect is produced, i.e., a givenw-allele with its characteristic colour, or other eye colour mutations, does not seem to affect the type of mottling. Drosopterins and ommochromes react in the same way to modifing factors like temperature and supernumerary Y chromosomes. Two mutants (w m2 andw m CoY) while reacting in the same manner to Y chromosomes showed an opposite temperature response.

By exchange between the heterochromatin of the Y and X chromosome inw/w m CoY males thew m Co duplication was transferred between the sex chromosomes with a certain regularity. It is not yet known wether the exchanges are mitotic or meiotic in origin but their heterochromatic nature has been demonstrated cytologically.

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  1. Genetisch Laboratorium der Rijksuniversiteit, Kaiserstraat 63, Leiden, The Netherlands

    F. M. A. van Breugel

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van Breugel, F.M.A. An analysis of white-mottled mutants inDrosophila hydei, with observations on X-Y exchanges in the male. Genetica 41, 589–625 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00958938

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