Viability and fertility of sex-linked autosomal duplications in Lucilia cuprina (Wiedemann)

Viable and fertile Y-linked duplications have been recovered in Lucilia cuprina for autosomal segments ranging in size from 2-12% of the autosomal polytene chromosome complement. No viable deficiency in this size range was recovered. Survival to adulthood of the duplications decreased with increasing duplication size. Genetic background also influenced recovery of some duplications. Recovery of duplications from fertile duplication-male parents was frequently much higher than from translocation-male parents, possibly due to low adjacent-1 segregation in some translocations or to meiotic-drive-type events. Chromosome 4R may contain a triplo-lethal locus. The use of sex-linked duplications in female-killing systems for genetic control programs may have considerable advantages over reciprocal sex-linked translocations, both in terms of fertility and strain stability.