Germ line aberrations associated with a case of hybrid dysgenesis inDrosophila melanogastermales

Abstract

Male sterility, male recombination, and transmission ratio distortion – all examples of a syndrome known as hybrid dysgenesis in Drosophila melanogaster – were found to involve chromosome–cytoplasm interactions. The latter two have temperature optima near 25° and involve pre-meiotic events. In addition, sex ratio distortion, and induction of certain translocations of the X and Y chromosomes (but not the autosomes) were found to be part of hybrid dysgenesis. Both are caused by chromosome–cytoplasm interactions with pre-meiotic events playing a crucial role. The results agree with previous data on female sterility in hybrid dysgenesis, which also has cytoplasmic components and premeiotic origins.