FURTHER STUDIES ON THE RIBOSOMAL RNA CISTRONS OF SCIARA COPROPHILA (DIPTERA)

Susan A. Gerbi ¹ and Helen V. Crouse ²

¹ Biomedical Division, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912
² Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306

Additional experiments with homologous as well as heterologous hybridization confirmed our previous finding in Sciara coprophila that XX females have nearly twice the number of ribosomal RNA cistrons as X0 males. A comparison between two different X' chromosomes revealed that only the one carrying the irradiation-induced Wavy mutation has a deletion of 70% of its ribosomal RNA cistrons as compared to the standard X. The deletion is relatively stable, and the remaining ribosomal RNA cistrons do not appear to undergo disproportionate replication or magnification as in Drosophila. Homologous hybridization experiments revealed an unusually low reiteration of ribosomal RNA cistrons in this fly, 45 gene copies per X chromosome. The question is raised as to whether such a low number of cistrons may be related to the unusual nucleolar condition encountered in the Sciaridae.

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