A Study of Dominant Mosaic Eye-Color Mutants in Drosophila melanogaster. I. Phenotypes and Loci Involved

Abstract

(1) Six dominant mosaic eye-color mutants of the brown locus (II-104.3) have been studied. All are over 90 per cent. lethal when homozygous. The homozygotes are characterized by nearly homogeneous eye-color, and by wing abnormalities. These allelomorphs, like brown itself, affect principally the quantity of the yellow pigment of the eye, even removing it entirely when homozygous. (2) Four of these six are associated with mutual translocations; two with inversions. In each case one of the breaks is at or very near the locus concerned. (3) One dominant allelomorph (Grape) of the mutant gene for pink eye (III-48.0) has been studied. It, too, affects the amount of yellow pigment present in the eye. It is lethal when homozygous. It is associated with a mutual translocation, and one break is at or very near the locus concerned. (4) Two dominant allelomorphic eye-colors (Moire) located in the left eye of III are associated, one with an inversion, the other with a mutual translocation. These are also lethal when homozygous.