Two series of mouse chimaeras were produced by aggregating pairs of eight-cell embryos that differed at the Gpi-1s locus, encoding glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI-1); the paired embryos were respectively homozygous Gpi-1sa/Gpi-1sa and Gpi-1sb/Gpi-1sb. Chimaeric blastocysts were transferred to pseudopregnant females, that were homozygous Gpi-1se/Gpi-1se and produced only GPI-1 C enzyme. Quantitative electrophoresis of GPI-1 was used to estimate the contribution of each embryo (GPI-1 A and GPI-1B enzyme activity) to the foetus, placenta and other extraembryonic tissues of 12½ day chimaericconceptuses. For both series of chimaeras, the distributions of %GPI-1A in different tissues were classified as (1) balanced and typical, (2) balanced but atypical or (3) unbalanced. One series of chimaeras was clearly unbalanced, so that the cells derived from the (C57BL × CBA/Ca)F2 embryo (Gpi-1sb/Gpi-1sb) predominated over those derived from the BALB/c inbred strain (Gpi-1sa/Gpi-1sa) in most foetuses. Two significant observations were made concerning this unbalanced series. Firstly, the mean composition of the placenta and other extraembryonic tissues was similar to that in the foetus i.e. also unbalanced with (C57BL × CBA/Ca)F2 (abbreviated to BF2) cells predominating. Secondly, despite this generalizeddeficiency of BALB/c cells, there were differences in the frequency of non-chimaeric tissues between different developmental lineages. In 20/34 chimaeric conceptuses in the unbalanced series only BF2 cells were detected in the foetus, whereas both BF2 and BALB/c cells were present in at least one of the extraembryonic tissues. This group of chimaeras, therefore, shows some similarities to human confined mosaicism. Although chimaerism occurred more often in the primitive endoderm (hypoblast) lineage (yolk sac endoderm and parietal endoderm) than in the placenta, this may also be the case in human mosaics. The mosaic status of the human yolk sac endoderm is usually unknown so it is possible that mosaicism often occurs in the yolk sac endoderm as well as the trophectoderm in human ‘confined placental mosaicism’. The uniformly unbalanced phenotype seen in the mouse chimaeras may be a result of generalized cell selection against BALB/c cells in all tissues. As an alternative explanation, we propose that most of the BALB/c cells in the blastocyst are allocated to the mural trophectoderm, which has a limited mitotic potential and so contributes little to the mid-gestation conceptus. Further work is required to test these possibilities.

According to the classical genetic analysis in Paramecium caudatum by Tsukii & Hiwatashi (1983), the E mating type of each syngen is expressed when the cell bears alleles specific for syngen at the Mt locus. The O mating type is expressed when cells are homozygous for the null allele, mt, at the Mt locus. In such mt/mt cells the O syngen specificity is determined by alleles at two other loci called MA and MB. Inthe study reported here, macronucleoplasmic transplantation technique was used to test the above hypothesis. When macronucleoplasm of type E3 (mating type E of syngen 3) was injected into a macronucleus of type O12 (mating type O of syngen 12), some recipients changed to type E of the donor syngen but some others changed to type E of the recipient syngen. Thus, syngen specificity of donor macronucleoplasm controlling type E was converted into that of the recipients, even though the latter has no gene that controls type E. When this transformant expressing type E of the recipiexnt syngen was re-injected back into E of the other syngen, the expression of the converted mating type in some way continued in the recipient. This suggests that syngen specificity of gene Mt of the donor was changed to that of the recipients by intersyngenic transplantation of macronucleoplasm. We also obtained results suggesting that the gene dosage ratio of Mt to mt or Mt to MA and MB may be important for syngen specific expression of type E.

The evolution of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) appears to be a complex mixture of long-range gene flow, natural and artificial selection, and local effects of isolation by distance. In this paper we present the most complete analysis to date on the genetic structure and variability of 52 populations of chestnut spanning the entire European area of distribution. The study is based on the use of isozyme data. Our samples came from four major zones, possibly representing relevant steps in the evolution and spread of sweet chestnut in Europe: (i) eastern Turkey, the supposed center of origin of the species; (ii) western Turkey, the area in which human domestication started; (iii) Italy, where domesticated chestnut was first introduced to the rest of Europe by the Romans; and (iv) France, representing the latest phases of the expansion, close to the northern limit of the taxon.

As previous studies based only on Italian and some Turkish populations suggested, the electrophoretic data are consistent with a series of episodes of west- and north-ward migration. The early expansion from the center of origin was probably slow, resulting from natural diffusion of the species. Most of the original genetic variation has been conserved during this phase. Successive episodes of colonization of western Turkey and then of the rest of Europe were probably the more rapid result of human activity. These later stages were associated with genetic drift that reduced the overall heterozygosity of the extant populations. No evidence for selection could be found at the large geographical scale of this study, although previous regional works have shown spatial patterns of allelic frequencies at a few loci and phenotypic differentiation consistent with the action of past selective pressures.

In many reptiles, sex determination is temperature-sensitive. This phenomenon has been shown to take place in the laboratory as well as in nature, but its effect on natural populations remains questionable. In the turtle Emys orbicularis, the effects of temperature override a weak mechanism of genetic sex determination which is revealed in incubation at pivotal temperature. At this temperature, the sexual phenotype is concordant with the expression of the serologically defined H-Y antigen (H-Ys) in non-gonadal tissues; males are H-Ys negative (H-Y−) whereas females are H-Ys positive (H-Y+). To estimate the importance of sexual inversion (sexual phenotype and H-Ys expression discordant) in populations of Brenne (France), the frequencies of male and female sexual phenotypes among H-Ys phenotypes were determined. The frequencies of sex reversed individuals are low, only 6 % of phenotypic females being H-Y− and 11 % of phenotypic males being H-Y+. According to these data, two theoretical models have been constructed to estimate the contribution to sex determination of individuals in relation to their genotype. The first model excludes any influence of incubation temperature and sexual phenotype on the fitness of individuals. The second one considers that these parameters influence fitness because this model has been previously shown to favour environmental sex determination. In both models, it appears that sex determination can be viewed as genotypic and monogenic with some individuals sexually inverted by theaction of temperature. One category of homozygous animals differentiates mainly into one sex, and the heterozygous animals differentiate mainly into the other sex. The second category of homozygotes has a low frequency in the populations and can differentiate as male or female without high constraint. Then it is estimated that in Brenne approximately 83% of the eggs are incubated in conditions allowing the genetic component to influence sex determination.

Analysis of the transposition behaviour of the P and hobo elements borne by the 31·1/CyL4 MRF (P), 23·5Δ/CyL4 MRF (hobo) and 23·5*/Cy MRF (hobo) strains in the progeny of dysgenic crosses with two ME laboratory strains (Berlin-k and dp b en bw) at 25 °C revealed that: (a) the two ME laboratory strains affect differently the transposition rates of P and hobo elements. More precisely, P element transposition is higher in heterozygotes with dp b en bw than in those with Berlin-k. In contrast, the transposition rate of hobo elements is higher in Berlin-k than in dp b cn bw heterozygotes. (b) Like P, hobo has the potential to transpose at high frequencies and to nonhomologous chromosomes, (c) The dysgenically inactive hobo elements of the 3·11 MRF strain transpose more frequently than the dysgenically active hobo elements of the 23·5 MRF strains in certain crosses, (d) There are insertion hot spots for P and hobo elements. For the P elements there are enough data to suggest that the insertion hot spots are different in the two EM strains. The data are discussed on the basis of the involvement of putative host factors in transposition regulation of the P and hobo elements.

Rates of transposition and excision of the Drosophila melanogaster retrotransposon elements mdg3, 297, Doc, roo and copia were estimated directly, by in situ hybridization analysis of their cytological insertion sites in 31 replicates of a highly inbred line that had accumulated spontaneous mutations for approximately 160generations. Estimated transposition rates of Doc, roo and copia were, respectively, 4·2 × 10−5, 3·1 × 10−3 and 1·3 − 10−3; no transpositions of 297 nor mdg3 were observed. Rates of transposition of copia varied significantly among sublines. Excisions were only observed for roo elements, at a rate of 9·0 × 10−6 per element per generation. Copy number averaged over these element families increased 5·9 %; therefore, in these lines the magnitude of the forces opposing transposable element multiplication were weaker than transposition rates.