In the housefly, mosaics appear spontaneously but rarely. Sexual mosaics or gynandromorphs also appear in strains in which sex determination is based on autosomal sex factors. Rare cases of recombination in the male have been reported by some authors. In field and laboratory populations, mitotic plates with figures indicating exchange of chromatid segments are regularly observed in tissues of individuals of both sexes and at all stages of development. All these anomalies are interpreted as outward manifestation of the same phenomenon: mitotic recombination. The cytological basis of mitotic recombination, its relative frequency, its influence on linkage and genetic variability are discussed.

The probability distribution of the heterogenic (non-identical by descent) fraction of the genome in a finite monoecious random mating population has been derived. It was assumed that in any generation the length of both heterogenic and homogenic segments are exponentially distributed. An explicit expression is given for the expected number of ‘external junctions’ (sites that mark the end of a heterogenic segment) per unit map length in any generation. The latter necessitates the introduction of two higher-order identity relations between three genes, and their recurrence relations. Theoretical results were compared with the outcome of a series of simulation runs (showing a very good fit), as well as with the results predicted by Fisher's ‘theory of junctions’. In contrast to Fisher's approach, which only applies when the average heterogeneity is relatively small, the present model applies to any generation.

An important question in evolutionary biology concerns the manner and tempo in which organismal and/or genetic changes that promote evolutionary divergence occur. One recent hypothesis, termed rectangular evolution, holds that most significant evolutionary change occurs during occasional or periodic speciation episodes, with long periods of evolutionary stability in the interim. An alternative view, termed phyletic gradualism, holds that evolutionary divergences proceed by the slow and even accumulation of genetic differences within populations of established species. Two brief tests of rectangular evolution are presented using chromosomal data from North American cyprinid fishes (minnows), a group known to have experienced heterogeneous rates of splitting. Within the rapidly speciated genus Notropis, rates of chromosomal evolution appear slower relative to other, less rapidly speciated confamilial genera. Species of Notropis also are less divergent chromosomally, on the average, than are species from other cyprinid genera. These results are in compatible with a rectangular mode of chromosomal divergence these fishes. The results also reveal inconsistencies with a gradual mode chromosomal divergence, but at present this hypothesis cannot be falsified. Consideration of these and other data suggests that different levels of the cyprinid genome may follow independent evolutionary paths.

Linkage relationships of three gene markers of chromosome 17, namely Brachyury (T), tufted (tf), and Histocompatibility-2 (H-2), to the break-point of T(16; 17)43H male sterile translocation were established. The following order was found: T−tf−T43H−H-2. In all cases the translocation break was found in cis to H-2k, haplotype, no recombinant being found among 218 backcross individuals examined. More than 60 viable and fertile animals trisomic for the proximal part of chromosome 17 (including T-t genetic complex) have been recovered among progeny of T43H/+ female translocation heterozygotes as a result of adjacent −2 disjunction at first meiotic division. Mutation tf has been assigned to band 17B in chromosome 17 by comparing the location of T190Ca and T43H genetic and cytological breakpoints. Recombination between centromere 17 and T43H break was reduced almost to zero in the presence of Rb(16.17)7Bnr translocation. The unexpected restoration of male fertility was observed in T43H/Rb7Bnr hybrids (T43H/+ males being completely sterile) which made it possible to prepare the first homozygotes for T43H male–sterile translocation. Direct estimation of chiasma frequencies in centromere 17−T43H region indicated an 11 cM distance between the centromere 17 and the proximal end of t12 haplotype. The significance of centromere −t (or H-2) distance on the predictable restrictions of the possible haploid manifestation of T-t or H-2 gene products on sperm membrane is discussed.

Currently favoured models postulate that gene conversion is due to the correction of mis-matches in heteroduplex DNA. If heteroduplex is formed reciprocally on both chromatids participating in recombination, the mis-matches due to a heterozygous site will be different on the two chromatids, and there will be four correction probabilities to be taken into account. It is shown that, given the frequencies of the five different kinds of aberrant ascus ratios, it is possible to calculate four alternative sets of values for the four correction probabilities and the total number of asci in which heteroduplex is formed. These four solutions reduce in effect to two when there are no other markers distinguishing the two chromatids. With the aid of flanking markers and the assumption that heteroduplex formation is chemically polarized, it is possible, in principle, to choose one best solution.

The method has been applied to the five one-point crosses in Sordaria fimicola from which most data are available. The data from four different mutants crossed to wild type are compatible with a restricted model in which the correction frequencies, from mutant to wild and from wild to mutant, are the same on both chromatids. In the case of the fifth mutant the data are not consistent with this restricted model, and indicate different correction frequencies in the two chromatids.

We have examined mice doubly homozygous for both pale ear (ep/ep) and beige (bgJ/bgJ) mutations in order to detect genetic interactions between these 2 loci affecting pigmentation and lysosome physiology. The doubly homozygous mouse has a new pigmentation phenotype consistent with independent effects of ep and bg. The beige (Brandt, Elliott & Swank, 1975) and pale ear (Novak & Swank, 1979)genes have abnormal kidney lysosomal enzyme accumulation caused by defective secretion into urine. No cumulative effect on these functions was observed in the new double mutant phenotype. The new phenotype has giant lysosomes typical of the beige mutation. Unexpectedly, the beige gene corrects the effect of the pale ear on serum lysosomal enzyme concentration. There is also a gene dosage effect of the beige gene on this serum lysosomal enzyme phenotype. The results suggest that the beige and pale ear genes affect the same pathway(s) of lysosome biosynthesis and/or processing. The action of the beige gene may precede that of the pale ear gene in lysosome physiology.

A model of centric fusions between the X or Y chromosome and an autosome carrying a selected locus is studied. It is assumed that fusions are not associated with any fitness effects, and that all chromosomes disjoin regularly from their homologues. It is shown that a necessary condition for the fusion to be favoured is that there is a selectively maintained sex difference in allele frequencies at the selected locus. If this condition is satisfied, the initial rate of increase of a rare Y-autosome fusion is about three times that of an X-autosome fusion, with the same parameter values. Computer calculations of the final equilibrium states reached by populations containing such fusions were done.

The production of Inl+ recombinants was readily demonstrated in transductional crosses from Inl+ donor strains to Inl− recipient strains from different biotypes and biogroups. None of numerous crosses between different pairs of strains from biotypes 25 and 26 and the biogroup FIRN (biotypes 29, 30, 31 and 32) gave Inl+ recombinants suggesting that the inl mutation was present at the same intragenic site in all of these strains. Strains of the FIRN biogroup (Fim−Inl−Rha−Bxyl−) are thought to have descended by successive rha and fim mutations from an ancestral bacterium of biotype 25 (Fim+Inl−Rha+Bxyl−). The sites of the inl mutations in other Inl− biotypes (9, 10, 27 and 25hi) were independent and each was different from that in strains from biotypes 25, 26 and FIRN.

In the mitochondrial and nuclear genetic background of the 777-3A strain (op1, ade1, α) a set of strains with different nutritional requirements and mating types, carrying the op1 mutation versus its wild-type OP1 allele was constructed. This makes possible the use of strains with the same genetic background in recombinational analysis of mitochondrial loci.