Genetics, Vol 126, 915-919, Copyright © 1990


INVESTIGATIONS

Increased Variation in ADH Enzyme Activity in Drosophila Mutation-Accumulation Experiment Is Not Due to Transposable Elements at the Adh Structural Gene

C. F. Aquadro, H. Tachida, C. H. Langley, K. Harada and T. Mukai
Laboratory of Genetics, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709 Present address: Section of Genetics and Development, Biotechnology Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-2703.

We present here a molecular analysis of the region surrounding the structural gene encoding alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) in 47 lines of Drosophila melanogaster that have each accumulated mutations for 300 generations. While these lines show a significant increase in variation of alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme activity compared to control lines, we found no restriction map variation in a 13-kb region including the complete Adh structural gene and roughly 5 kb of both 5' and 3' sequences. Thus, the rapid accumulation of ADH activity variation after 28,200 allele generations does not appear to have been due to the mobilization of transposable elements into or out of the Adh structural gene region.