ABERRANT SEGREGATION AND PSEUDOALLELISM AT THE GARNET LOCUS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Abstract

Experiments are presented indicating that in P melanogaster, the origin of the garnet reversions does not involve suppressor mutation but is concerned with an alteration within the garnet segment of the X chromosome. Garnet reversions produce a phenotype indistinguishable from that produced by the wild type, thus constituting complete reversions rather than partial reversions. Garnet reversions are not the result of a random process such as spontaneous reverse mutation, but appear to have an origin in some way associated with the specific genotypes from which they are segregated. The garnet mutants of P melanogaster constitute the tightest-linked cluster of physiologically related mutants investigated thus far to yield to recombination in this organism.