A Comparison of Heat and Interchromosomal Effects on Recombination and Interference in DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Abstract

Heat and interchromosomal effects on recombination have been compared for 23 regions comprising the predominantly euchromatic portions of the five arms of the Drosophila genome. Patterns of response are strikingly similar, with both modifiers causing proximal and distal increases and minimal effects in the middle of the arms. Changes in interference for the same regions in the presence of the two modifiers reveal little similarity, except for the X chromosome. The question of independent control of interference and recombination, as well as alternatives for their temporal sequence, is discussed. Recombination response to the two modifiers in the centric heterochromatin of chromosoaime 2 is markedly different from that found in euchromatin. The interchromosomal effect is absent here, whereas heat induces an increase roughly an order of magnitude greater than that found in euchromatin and totally unlike the lack of response in the proximal heterochromatin of the X chromosome. It is proposed that the sequestering of DNA satellite I (thermal dissociation 9-20 degrees lower than that of the other major satellites) in the centromeric heterochromatin of chromosome 2 (but not in X or 3) may account for the increase.