Genetic dissection of segregation distortion II. Mechanism of suppression of distortion by certain inversions

Abstract

In(2L+2R)Cgamma and In(2LR)Pm2 are inversion-bearing chromosomes, the former carrying a paracentric inversion in each arm and the latter carrying a long pericentric. Both chromosomes produce normal segregation ratios when present in heterozygous males with certain segregation distorter chromosomes. The apparent suppression of distortion by these chromosomes was long attributed to a failure of synapsis, but this hypothesis has fallen out of favor recently because a large number of chromosome aberrations, particularly translocations and inversions, suppress distortion even though their breakpoints fall into no recognizable pattern. Although failure of synapsis does not appear to be the mechanism of suppression of distortion, what is responsible for the suppression remains unknown. In this paper it is shown that In(2L+2R)Cgamma and In(2LR)Pm2 suppress segregation distortion because they carry Rsp, a component of the segregation distorter system that renders a chromosome insensitive to distortion. Both chromosomes induce "suicide" of chromosomes carrying Sd Rsp+.