Aanalysis of case of meiotic drive in Drosophila melanogaster

Aanalysis of case of meiotic drive in Drosophila melanogaster

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Hanks, GD,  Genetics,  50:123-130. 1964.

IN the past ten years there has been a renewed interest in the abnormal recovery of chromosomes after meiosis; see for example DUNN (1953); NOVITSKI and SANDLER (1957) ; SANDLER and NOVITSKI ( 1957) ; LINDSLEY and SANDLER (1958); NOVITSKI and HANKS (1961); and MAGUIRE (1963). When the two types of gametes from a heterozygote are recovered with unequal frequency because of a meiotic mechanism the force resulting is called meiotic drive (SANDLER and NOVITSKI 1957). Such a force is capable of altering allele frequencies in a population, and thus the evolutionary consequences are potentially important; this has been discussed in detail by DUNN (1953) and SANDLER and NOVITSKI (1957). The case analyzed here was found by testing chromosomes from population cages maintained by WALLACE atCold Spring Harbor which were subjected to low intensity radiation for over 200 generations (WALLACE 1956). Earlier studies have indicated that the case here analyzed does not produce its effect by zygotic mortality, is manifested only in the male, and is greatly altered by temperature changes during the period of meiosis in the male (NOVITSKI and HANKS 1961; ERICKSON and HANKS 1961). This paper presents the genetic analysis of this case showing the extent to which its effect may be modified by substituting different sex chromosomes and autosomes.