We have isolated and characterized 48 Bacillus subtilis competence-deficient mutants. The mutants, obtained by nitrososoguanidine mutagenesis or by insertional mutagenesis with transposon Tn917, had a reduced transformation frequency and a wild-type transduction frequency. The com mutations were mapped by PBS1 transduction and at least four new com genes have been identified. The mutants were also characterized for their capacity to bind and take up the transforming DNA.

Plasmid pBR322 is amplified following amino-acid limitation in Escherichia coli relA hosts. In relA+ hosts there was no significant amplification or a much smaller one. Plasmid amplification is due to the relA mutation; when the relA+ allele is transferred into the relA mutant CP79 this strain no longer amplifies plasmid DNA during amino acid starvation. It is concluded that ppGpp is a negative effector of plasmid replication. Amplification is temperature dependent, being maximal at 32 °C and negligible at 37 °C.

The chromosomal lac region of the coliform bacterium Klebsiella M5al was cloned into the multicopy plasmid pBR322 to give pHE7 and pHE8. pHE8 contains 12·6 kb of M5al DNA, including its complete lac operon, and pHE7 contains 2·5 kb of M5al DNA and includes the complete lac Y gene and a small segment of lacZ. The M5al operon has the same gene order as the Escherichia coli lac operon. The lac genes of the Lac plasmid of Klebsiella V9A were cloned into pBR322 to give pHE1 and pHE2, of approximately 39 and 43 kb. Both plasmids were unstable in an E. coli RecA- strain, in contrast to the stability of pHE8. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis tests suggested that the M5a1 β-galactosidase monomer is about 5% longer, i.e. has about 50 more amino acids, than that of the E. coli Z gene. Tests made on the enzymes coded by the lac operons of M5a1, another Klebsiella strain (V9A) and its resident Lac plasmid, and several Lac+ Enterobacteria, led to the conclusion that only Escherichia coli among the Enterobacteria contains an active lacA gene.

Three water-soluble wheat endosperm proteins of the wheat variety Chinese Spring have been shown, by isoelectric focusing, to be the products of genes located on the long arms of chromosomes 7A, 7B and 7D. In the absence of any evidence of function these genes have been assigned the temporary symbol, Wsp-1.

Considerable intervarietal variation was found among a sample of 44 hexaploid wheat varieties. Five alleles at Wsp-A1, three at Wsp-B1 and two at Wsp-D1 were identified. Intrachromosomal mapping showed that Wsp-B1 is located distally on the long arm of chromosome 7B.

Alien homoeoloci were identified on chromosomes 7Hch of Hordeum chilense, 7H of H. vulgare, 7E of Agropyron elongatum, 7S1 of Aegilops sharonensis and 7V of Dasypyrum villosum. Some other loci encoding WSPs found in wheat and some alien species are also briefly described.

Samples of the intertidal prosobranch Littorina saxatilis were collected along vertical transects from high- to mid-store levels at five different geographic locations of western Europe. Electrophoretic screening of ten metabolic enzymes revealed five highly polymorphic loci. Four of these showed no or few significant differences in allele frequencies between high- and mid-shore samples of Littorina saxatilis. The fifth locus, Aat (aspartate aminotransferase, EC 2.6.1.1), showed clinal variation in allele frequencies over the few metres of each transect, suggesting that this locus, or a coupled locus, is under selection with a slow allele (Aat100) favoured in mid-shore habitats and a faster allele (Aat120) selected for in the high littoral fringe.

In Drosophila melanogaster two alleles at the Third chromosome resistance locus (Tcr; 3–39·6) were isolated in a screen of EMS mutagenized third chromosomes for dominant resistance to dietary α-methyl dopa, α-MD, a structural analogue of DOPA. Both alleles of Tcr are recessive lethals exhibiting partial complementation. Almost half (48·3%) of the Tcr40 / Tcr45 heterozygotes die as embryos but some survive past adult eclosion. Both the embryonic lethal phenotype and the adult phenotype suggest that Tcr is involved in cuticle synthesis. Tcr mutants suppress the lethality of partially complementing alleles at the α-MD hypersensitive locus, l(2)amd. The viability of Tcr40 / Tcr45, however, is not increased by the presence of a l(2)amd allele. The possibility that the Tcr and l(2)amd mutations reveal a catecholamine metabolic pathway involved in cuticle structure is discussed.

Destabilization in somatic cells of P-element insertions in the X-linked singed gene of Drosophila melanogaster has been studied. We have shown that some but not all unstable P-element insertions in singed can form mosaics. The cause of this variation is not clear from studies of the restriction maps of the mutations tested. The transposable element movements occur early in development and require, in addition to an appropriate P-element insertion in singed, a trans-acting maternal effect component. Movements appear to occur preferentially in attached-X stocks. However, the maternal effect component maps to the central region of chromosome 2.

In Drosophila melanogaster, the P−M and I−R systems of hybrid dysgenesis are associated with high rates of transposition of P and I elements, respectively, in the germlines of dysgenic hybrids formed by crossing females of strains without active elements to males of strains containing them. Transposition rates are not markedly accelerated in the reciprocal, nondysgenic hybrids. Previous attempts to evaluate the extent to which hybrid dysgenesis-mediated P transposition contributes to mutational variance for quantitative characters by comparing the responses to selection of P−M dysgenic and nondysgenic hybrids have given variable results. This experimental design has been extended to include an additional quantitative trait and the I−R hybrid dysgenesis system. The selection responses of lines founded from both dysgenic and nondysgenic crosses showed features that would be expected from the increase in frequency of initially rare genes with major effects on the selected traits. These results differ from those of previous experiments which showed additional selection response only in lines started from dysgenic crosses, and can be explained by the occasional occurrence of large effect transposable element-induced polygenic mutations in both dysgenic and nondysgenic selection lines. High rates of transposition in populations founded from nondysgenic crosses may account for the apparently contradictory results of the earlier selection experiments, and an explanation is proposed for its occurrence.

M and M′ strains of Drosophila melanogaster in the P-M system of hybrid dysgenesis were compared in two series of tests, with the following results. (1) The singed-weak hypermutability regulation test showed that M′ strains had lower P excision rates than M strains, suggesting that P-elements repression must occur in M′ strains although it is not detectable by gonadal dysgenesis assays. (2) The evolution of mixed P + M and mixed P + M′ populations was compared, using a strong P strain. The P + M cultures invariably evolved in a few generations into strong P cultures, while the P + M′ cultures evolved into P-type cultures with reduced P-factor potentials. However, after 30 generations of culture, both these types of mixed cultures had similar P copy numbers, suggesting that regulation of copy number had occurred in them.

The interaction of three neurogenic loci viz. Delta, Enhancer of split and Notch, and a related gene, Hairless, of Drosophila melanogaster was investigated at the adult morphology level by measuring the effects of the mutations of the three other genes on the expression of the recessive lethal antimorphic Abruptex mutations of the Notch locus. The Abruptex mutations were also coupled in cis or trans with facet-glossy or split mutations of the Notch locus. In some of the experiments, the genotype of the fly was homozygous for either facet-glossy or split mutation or their wild type alleles but heterozygous for the Abruptex. Facet-glossy is located in a large intron of the locus, whereas split is located in the same exon as Abruptex. In all compounds studied, Delta suppressed the expression of Abruptex while Hairless and Enhancer of split enhanced it. The interactions of the four genes studied were allele specific, suggesting an interaction at the protein level. The comparison of the results presented in this study on the interaction of the neurogenic genes with other results on the same subject suggests that the interactions are similar in embryonic and imaginal development.

Data were collected on the distribution of ten families of transposable elements among fourteen X chromosomes isolated from a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster, by means of in situ hybridization to polytene chromosomes. It was found that, with the exception of roo, the copy number per chromosome followed a Poisson distribution. There was no evidence for linkage disequilibrium, either within or between families. Some pairs of families of elements were correlated with respect to the identity of the sites that were occupied in the sample, although there was no evidence for a correlation with respect to the sites at which elements attained relatively high frequencies. Elements appeared to be distributed randomly along the distal part of the X chromosome. There was, however, a strong tendency for elements to accumulate at the base of the chromosome. Element frequencies per chromosome band were generally low, except at the base of the chromosome where bands in subdivisions 19E and 20A sometimes had high frequencies of occupation. These results are discussed in the light of models of the population dynamics of transposable elements. It is concluded that they provide strong evidence for the operation of a force or forces opposing transpositional increase in copy number. The accumulation of elements at the base of the chromosome is consistent with the idea that unequal exchange between elements at non-homologous sites is such a force, although other possibilities cannot be excluded at present. The data suggest that the rate of transposition per element per generation is of the order of 10−4, for the elements included in this study.

The specific activities of α-amylase were measured for two sets of mutation accumulation lines, each set having originated from a different lethal-carrying second chromosome and SM1(Cy) chromosome and having been maintained by a balanced lethal system for about 300 generations. Significant variation was found to have accumulated among lines of both sets. Because of dysgenic crosses in the early generations of mutation accumulation, insertions or deletions of transposable elements in the Amy gene region were suspected of being the cause of this variation. In order to test this possibility, the structural changes in the 14 kb region of these chromosomes that includes the structural genes for α-amylase were investigated by restriction map analysis. We found that most part of the activity variation is due to replacements of a chromosomal region of SM1(Cy), including the structural genes for α-amylase, by the corresponding regions of the lethal chromosomes. One line also contained an insertion in this region but this line has an intermediate activity value. Thus, insertions of transposable elements into the Amy gene region were not found to be responsible for the new variation observed in α-amylase activity. If we remove those lines with structural changes from the analysis, the genetic variance of α-amylase specific activity among lines becomes non-significant in both sets of chromosomes.

The activity of blood glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI-1) in mice heterozygous for various alleles at the Gpi-1s structural locus (heterozygotes a/b, a/c and b/c) was significantly higher than expected, on the basis of additive inheritance, from the levels in parental homozygotes. Moreover, the GPI-1 activity was higher in a/b heterozygotes than in either parent (heterosis). Studies of heat stability with kidney homogenates revealed that the relative stabilities of GPI-1 dimers was AA > AB > BB > AC ≥ BC > CC. Differences in dimer stabilities in vivo would affect the total GPI-1 levels in heterozygotes and could account for non-additive inheritance but would be insufficient to explain heterosis for GPI-1 activity. Other possible contributing factors include unequal production or stability of monomers, or higher catalytic activity of heterodimers. Monomers could also associate non-randomly but this would not be sufficient to explain heterosis. It is clear that non-additive inheritance patterns may be produced by variants of either structural or regulatory genes.

In Drosophila melanogaster up to two thirds of the rDNA genes contain insertion sequences of two types in the 28S coding region. Comparison of the ribosomal insertion transcripts in the wild type and in two bobbed mutants reared at two temperatures showed that the level of type I transcripts is dependent on both the number of genes with type I insertions in the bobbed loci and the intensity of bobbed phenotype. Importantly, a long transcript of 8·7 kb hybridized to the ribosomal probe, the INS I probe and also to the restriction fragment of the rDNA downstream of the point of insertion was found in one bobbed mutant. This result and also those from sandwich hybridization indicate that some interrupted ribosomal genes are functional.

We have studied, using light microscopy, the relationship between chromosome content and nuclear diameter in early spermatids of males carrying different combinations of wild-type and compound chromosomes in Drosophila melanogaster. By using these genotypes we have been able to observe spermatid nuclei bearing various numbers of chromosomes ranging from only one sex chromosome and no major autosomes to almost twice the normal chromosome complement. We have found that variations in the chromosome content are accompanied by increasing the variance in early spermatid nuclear diameter; the more gametic classes produced, the higher the variance of nuclear diameters. These results indicate that measuring nuclear diameters in early spermatids represents a useful way to estimate the levels of meiotic non-disjunction and thereby to improve the characterization of lethal or male sterile mutants in which analysis of meiotic chrosome non-disjunction cannot be achieved by conventional genetic methods.

In the homozygous condition, the mutation adr (arrested development of righting response) of the mouse causes a myotonia and a drastic reduction of the Ca2+-binding protein parvalbumin (PV) in fast muscles. Using a rat PV probe, a mouse cDNA clone was isolated from a λgt11 wild-type fast-muscle library and its nucleotide sequence was determined. The protein coding and the 3′ non-translated regions of the mouse gene show extensive homology with the rat PV gene. The result of Southern blot hybridization is consistent with a single copy gene for parvalbumin. Restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) between Mus musculus domesticus (e.g. C57BL/6) and Mus spretus (SPE) were detected with the enzymes Eco RI, Pst I, and Sst I. The restriction fragment patterns of DNA samples from 65 individual offspring of (C57BL/6 × SPE)F1 × C57BL/6 backcrosses were tested with the PV probe and matched, for linkage detection, to pre-existing patterns established with various RFLP probes on the same samples. A co-distribution of PV-RFLPs with Pvt-1 and Mlvi-2, which had been localized on chromosome 15, was detected. Thus, the structural gene for PV, designated Pva, maps to chromosome 15 of the mouse whereas the adr mutation shows no linkage with markers on this chromosome. Gene locus homology between chromsome 15 of the mouse and chromosome 22 of man (which carries the human PV gene) is discussed.

Male recombination in P–M dysgenic crosses has been viewed as a reflection of P-element transposase interacting with P elements. However, recent studies suggest that the transposase may catalyse double-stranded breaks in chromosomal DNA. We have, therefore, introduced P(Δ2–3 ry+) (99B), a single non-mobile P-element transposase source, into the long-standing laboratory true M strains of a flanking lethal crossover selective system, thus facilitating the examination of rare male recombination events as an assay for transposase activity. We find that the rate of male recombination in the presence of this non-mobile P element is greater than twenty times the background rate of male recombination in the control examined prior to introduction of the transposase source.

Eggs from reciprocal hybrids between the C57BL/6By and BALB/cBy strains were tested for their susceptibility to attack by hyaluronidase and pronase. There were significant reciprocal differences between the F1 females in the responses of their unfertilized eggs to both enzymes. The F1 hybrids from BALB mothers showed the increased susceptibility characteristic of C57BL whilst the F1 hybrids with C57BL mothers were more resistant to both enzymes, like BALB mice. Eggs from the four kinds of reciprocal F2 hybrid females also showed patroclinous patterns of susceptibility. A patroclinous difference was found between reciprocal crosses of the CXBD and CXBE recombinant inbred strains but not in crosses between recombinant inbred strains with similar phenotypes. Cross fostering did not alter the phenotypes of the C57BL and BALB females or those of their reciprocal F1 hybrids. The findings are interpreted in terms of differential genomic imprinting of paternally inherited information. The possible general usefulness of patroclinous differences between reciprocal F1 females in revealing differences in imprinting is noted.

A model of genetic variation of a quantitative character subject to the simultaneous effects of mutation, selection and drift is investigated. Predictions are obtained for the variance of the genetic variance among independent lines at equilibrium with stabilizing selection. These indicate that the coefficient of variation of the genetic variance among lines is relatively insensitive to the strength of stabilizing selection on the character. The effects on the genetic variance of a change of mode of selection from stabilizing to directional selection are investigated. This is intended to model directional selection of a character in a sample of individuals from a natural or long-established cage population. The pattern of change of variance from directional selection is strongly influenced by the strengths of selection at individual loci in relation to effective population size before and after the change of regime. Patterns of change of variance and selection responses from Monte Carlo simulation are compared to selection responses observed in experiments. These indicate that changes in variance with directional selection are not very different from those due to drift alone in the experiments, and do not necessarily give information on the presence of stabilizing selection or its strength.

Complete t haplotypes can be transmitted at distorted ratios from heterozygous +/t male mice as a consequence of t-specific alleles at a series of t complex distorter loci (Tcd-1t through Tcd-4t) and a t complex responder locus. Partial t haplotypes that lack the Tcd-2t allele cannot be transmitted at the very high ratios characteristic of complete t haplotypes. The breeding studies reported here tested the possibility that the absence of Tcd-2t could be compensated for by the presence of double doses of other Tcdt alleles. The results indicate that a double dose of Tcd-4t alone will not work, but that a double dose of both Tcd-1t and Tcd-4t can promote a very high transmission ratio in the absence of Tcd-2t. These results suggest that the extent to which transmission ratios are distorted is dependent upon the absolute level of expression of the individual Tcd genes. Further studies of genotypic effects on transmission ratio distortion, as well as fertility, lead to the suggestion of a fifth t complex distorter (Tcd-5) locus within t haplotypes.