Previous studies have shown that mice with paternal disomy for chromosome 11 are consistently larger at birth than their normal sibs, whereas mice with the maternal disomy are consistently smaller. An imprinting effect with monoallelic expression of some gene/s affecting growth was indicated. Here we show that the size differences become established prior to birth and are only maintained subsequently, indicating that the gene repression is limited to prenatal development. Fetal analysis was limited to 12·5–17·5 days post coitum. However by extrapolating the data backwards it could be calculated that both the maternal and paternal size effects might commence as early as 7 days post coitum, although possibly slightly later. It may be deduced that initiation of expression of the gene/s responsible may occur at about this time in development. The two disomy growth rates were mirror-images of each other, suggesting that expressed gene dosage is the underlying cause. Differential growth of the placentas of the two disomies was also found, and extrapolation of these data backwards suggested that the placental size differences were initiated later in development than those for the fetuses. The differential placental growth of the maternal and paternal disomies may therefore have developed independently or emerged as a consequence of the differential fetal growth. In either event it would seem that the expression of the responsible gene occurs in the fetus itself to cause the anomalies of growth. The data therefore provide information on the temporal and tissue specificity of the gene/s responsible for the chromosome 11 imprinting effects. Possible candidate genes are discussed.

Using interchanges T(1, 3) and T(3, 6) of Pennisetum americanum orientation types of the interchange multiple at MI were studied in different genetic backgrounds. Orientation types alternate 1 and alternate 2, in addition to adjacent 1, adjacent 2 and indefinite could be identified for both the interchanges. The relative frequencies of various orientation types were influenced by a change in the genetic background.

For these interchanges, homologous centromeres do not seem to play a predominant role in the co-orientation of interchange multiple. The non-homologous co-orientation types were more subjected to genetic regulation than the homologous co-orientations.

Considering a single mutant gene in a geographically subdivided finite population, it is shown that the average number of heterozygotes, due to this gene, that appear in the population before fixation or loss of this gene is equal to twice the total population number. This is invariant under the geographical structure of the population.

It is assumed that a character under stabilizing selection is determined genetically by n linked, mutable loci with additive effects and a range of many possible allelic effects at each locus. A general qualitative feature of such systems is that the genetic variance for the character is independent of the linkage map of the loci, provided linkage is not very tight. A particular detailed model shows that certain aspects of the genetic system are moulded by stabilizing selection while others are selectively neutral. With reference to experimental data on characters of Drosophila flies, maize, and mice, it is concluded that large amounts of genetic variation can be maintained by mutation in polygenic characters even when there is strong stabilizing selection. The properties of the model are compared with those of heterotic models with linked loci.

The Colonia isolate of Physarum polycephalum produces plasmodia within amoebal clones. Wheals demonstrated genetically that amoebae of the C50 strain of this isolate, when crossed with heterothallic amoebae, yielded recombinant progeny. He concluded that nuclear fusion and meiosis occurred in these crosses and suggested that nuclear fusion was also involved in plasmodia formation in clones. He thus designated the strain ‘homothallic’.

In the present work genetic evidence is presented which indicates that the Colonia strain CL, when crossed with heterothallic strains, also yields recombinant progeny and thus undergoes nuclear fusion and meiosis. Microdensitometric measurements of nuclear DNA content are reported which indicate that CL amoebae are haploid like heterothallic amoebae, and crossed plasmodia are diploid. However, clonally formed CL plasmodia were found to have the same G2 nuclear DNA content as CL amoebae. This observation excludes the possibility of nuclear fusion when plasmodia form within clones of CL amoebae and therefore the strain cannot be homothallic. Two alternatives, apogamy and coalescence, are proposed as the most likely mechanisms for clonal plasmodium formation in strain CL.

The effects of different types of insemination (normal and delayed matings and in vitro fertilization) on the transmission ratio distortion (TRD) of three t haplotypes were determined. The tw73 haplotype which contains all of the loci known to affect TRD is transmitted at equivalent frequencies in normal matings and in in vitro fertilizations (0·84 and 0·85, respectively) but at a significantly lower frequency (0·62) in delayed matings. The distal partial th18 haplotype is transmitted at equivalent frequencies in all types of insemination (0·66 to 0·70) while the proximal partial tw18 haplotype is transmitted in Mendelian frequencies in normal matings and in in vitro inseminations but at a significantly lower frequency in delayed matings. The results are discussed with reference to the current genetic model for transmission ratio distortion.

In seven experiments the segregation ratio in barley plants heterozygous for the waxy-gene was studied. Each experiment entailed the scoring of more than 40000 iodine-stained pollen grains from ten spikes. A significant over-representation of blue pollen grains was found in all experiments, with the segregation distortion (measured as a conversion force) ranging from 0·0063 to 0·0143. The distortion was unaffected by which of two mutations was used and which genetic background the plants had, but was stronger in 1988 than in 1987. Different statistical, methodological and biological explanations of the results are discussed.

The partitioning of digestible energy intake on an ad libitum diet of standard mouse nuts was investigated in mice selected for high and low body weight at eight weeks and in an unselected control population. In selected mice aged from four to six weeks and housed at a temperature of 24·5 °C, almost all their energy intake could be attributed to basic maintenance and the deposition of extra protein and fat. Control mice, however, had an energy intake considerably in excess of their apparent maintenance and growth requirements. It was concluded that the unaccountable energy loss of the control line could be used to increase growth efficiency in the selected lines. The result is analogous to those obtained from studies on normal and obese mouse genotypes and indicates genetic changes in mechanisms controlling the conversion of food energy to heat.

Provision of a nest to reduce thermoregulatory heat production caused a minor reduction in energy intake and a corresponding decrease in the energy discrepancy. There was no effect on growth.

A new mutation, Em, is described for T. pyriformis, syngen 1. This dominant mutation eliminates the normal immature period in heterozygotes but is lethal in the homozygous state.

This paper is dedicated to Dr. Ralph Cleland in honor of his 75th birthday.

Reports of sex differences in crossing-over in animals, published since Haldane in 1922 suggested that crossing-over should be less frequent in the heterogametic sex, have been reviewed and discussed. No general rule is discernible apart from the absence of crossing-over in males of the dipteran genera Drosophila and Phryne and in females of some lepidopteran species, due apparently to failure of chiasma formation in the heterogametic sex. In the majority of animal species examined crossing-over occurs in both sexes. While there is some tendency in mammals for crossover values in females to exceed those in males, it was of greater interest to find that marked sex-differences occur in the same species (data chiefly from the house mouse) in opposite directions in different chromosomes. The influence of factors acting locally in the chromosomes, such as those associated with hetero-chromatin, were indicated as promising subjects for the study of variations associated with sex.

Progeny from one intra- and two inter-specific backcrosses between divergent strains of mice were typed to map multiple markers in relation to two pigment mutations on mouse chromosome 13, beige (bg) and pearl (pe). Both recessive mutants on a C57BL/6J background were crossed separately with laboratory strain PAC (M. domesticus) and the partially inbred M. musculus stock PWK. The intra- and inter-specific F1 hybrids were backcrossed to the C57BL/6J parental strain and DNA was prepared from progeny. Restriction fragment length polymorphisms were used to follow the segregation of alleles in the backcross offspring at loci identified with molecular probes. The linkage analysis defines the association between the bg and pe loci and the loci for the T-cell receptor γ-chain gene (Tcrg), the spermatocyte specific histone gene (Hist 1), the prolactin gene (Prl), the Friend murine leukaemia virus integration site 1 (Fim-1), the murine Hanukuh Factor gene (Muhf/Ctla-3) and the dihydrofolate reductase gene (Dhfr). This data confirms results of prior chromosomal mapping studies utilizing bg as an anchor locus, and provides previously unreported information defining the localization of the prolactin gene on mouse chromosome 13. The relationship of multiple loci in relation to pe is similarly defined. These results may help facilitate localization of the genes responsible for two human syndromes homologous with bg and pe, Chediak–Higashi syndrome and Hermansky–Pudlak syndrome.

Genet. Res., Camb. (1987), 49, pp. 11–18

A latitudinal cline in P–M gonadal dysgenesis potential in Australian Drosophila melanogaster populations

Figures 1 and 2 have been interchanged with their legends. Thus the maps shown as Fig. 2 belong to the legend of Fing. 1, and should be labelled Fig. 1, and vice versa.