Comparative studies of dose‐response curves for recessive lethal mutations induced by ethylnitrosourea in spermatogonia and in spermatozoa of Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Induction of recessive lethal mutations by N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) was studied for the second chromosome of spermatogonia and spermatozoa in Drosophila melanogaster. ENU (0.03, 0.3, and 1.0 mM) was given to flies by dissolving it in feeding sucrose solution. Since flies are known to show increased avoidance of the feeding solution with increase in ENU concentration, the absorbed doses of ENU by flies were estimated from the previously determined empirical data for relation of ENU concentration in the feeding solution and the intake volumes of the solution by flies as measured indirectly via intake radioactivities of 3H-labeled sucrose added to the solution. When plotted against absorbed doses of ENU, the observed frequencies of recessive lethals showed a linear relationship for induction in spermatozoa but a sigmoidal relationship for induction in spermatogonia. These results suggest that in spermatogonia ENU-induced mutational damage is more repairable in a lower dose range of ENU. Mosaic lethal mutations were induced by ENU but not in spermatogonia.