Sex-linked Inheritance in DrosophilaMorgan, Thomas Hunt
Science
Sex-linked Inheritance in Drosophila
Morgan, Thomas Hunt
Drosophila; Heredity
Aside from the decrease in fertility that occurs in certain stocks (a
question that need not be treated here), there are among the types
described in the text two cases that call for special comment. When the
mutant type called "rudimentary" was first discovered, it was found that
the females were sterile but the males were fully fertile. Later work has
revealed the nature of the sterility of the female. The ovaries are present
and in the young flies appear normal, but while in the normal flies the
eggs in the posterior portion enlarge rapidly during the first few days
after hatching, in the rudimentary females only a very few (about 15) eggs
enlarge. The other eggs in the ovary remain at a lower stage of their
development. Rarely the female lays a few eggs; when she does so some of
the eggs hatch, and if she has been mated to a rudimentary male, the
offspring are rudimentary females and males. The rudimentary females mate
in the normal time with rudimentary or with normal males, and their sexual
behavior is normal. Their sterility is therefore due to the failure of the
eggs to develop properly. Whether in addition to this there is some
incompatibility between the sperm and the eggs of this type (as supposed to
be the case at one time) is not conclusively disproved, but is not probable
from the evidence now available.
In the mutant called "fused" the females are sterile both with wild males
and with males from their own stock. An examination of the ovaries of these
females, made by Mr. C. McEwen, shows clearly that there are fewer than the
normal number of mature eggs, recalling the case of rudimentary.
It should be noticed that there is no apparent relation between the
sterility of these two types and the occurrence of the mutation in the X
chromosome, because other mutations in the X do not cause sterility, and
there is sterility in other mutant types that are due to factors in other
chromosomes. {19}
BALANCED INVIABILITY.
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