comparison of mutation rates for specific loci and chromosome regions in dysgenic hybrid males of Drosophila melanogaster

The mutation rates of specific loci and chromosome regions were estimated for two types of dysgenic hybrid males. These came from crosses between P or Q males and M females in the P-M system of hybrid dysgenesis. The M X P hybrids were the more mutable for each of the loci and chromosome regions tested. The Beadex locus was highly mutable in these hybrids but did not mutate at all in the sample of gametes from the M X Q hybrids. The singed locus had 75% of the mutability of Beadex in the M X P hybrids; it was also mutable in the M X Q hybrids. The white locus was only slightly mutable in the M X P hybrids and not at all mutable in the M X Q hybrids. The mutations in singed and white probably arose from the insertion of P elements into these loci; the mutations at Beadex probably involved the action of a P element located near this locus on the X chromosome of the P strain that was used in the experiments. Mutations in two chromosome regions, one including the zeste-white loci and the other near the miniature locus, were much more frequent in the M X P hybrids than in the M X Q hybrids. These mutations also probably arose from P element insertions. The implication is that insertion mutations occur infrequently in the M X Q hybrids, possibly because most of the P elements they carry are defective. In M X P hybrids, there is variation among loci with respect to P element mutagenesis, indicating that P elements possess a degree of insertional specificity.