The experiments reported in this paper are primarily addressed to test the hypothesis of overcompensation; i.e. whether polymorphic populations exploit limiting environmental resources better than populations uniform for a single genotype. Overcomposition is an ecological consequence of some models of frequency-dependent selection. Secondarily, the experiments investigate whether overdominance exists at the Mdh-2 locus in Drosophila pseudoobscura.

Two types of experimental populations are established: ‘low-variability’ populations, in which all flies in a culture are offspring from only two laboratory strains; ‘high-variability’ populations, in which the flies in a culture are derived from 20 different strains. However, the overall degree of individual heterozygosity is the same in both types of populations. Three kinds of populations with respect to the Mdh-2 locus are established within each type; two are homozygous for either the 100 or the 112 allele, the third is heterozygous. A fourth kind of population exists among the high-variability populations; namely, populations in which all three Mdh-2 genotypes are present. The experiments are done at two densities; one quasi-optimal, the other highly competitive.

Populations with high overall levels of genetic variation consistently produce more flies than low-variability populations. The differences are significant at the low, but not at the high, density. Moreover, populations polymorphic for the Mdh-2 locus generally produce more flies than populations having only one Mdh-2 genotype. At high density, the Mdh-2 polymorphic populations have greater productivity than populations with anyone of the three genotypes, and the differences are statistically significant when the polymorphic populations are compared with either one of the two homozygotes or with the average of all three genotypes. In brief, overcompensatory effects – which may account for frequency-dependent selection – are observed in the experiment and may be a common phenomenon in nature.

Populations in which all individuals are heterozygous at the Mdh-2 locus produce in every case more flies than populations with only homozygotes for one or the other allele. The superiority of the heterozygotes is statistically significant for all comparisons at low density, but at high density it is statistically significant for the comparison with the homozygote rarer in nature and only in low variability populations.

The effect of nalidixic acid on conjugal recombination was studied in matings with recipient strains carrying recA200, a mutation which confers a thermosensitive Rec− phenotype. Addition of nalidixic acid to Hfr Nals × F−NalRrecA200 matings at low temperature (35 °C) caused a sharp 10- to 20-fold decline in the yield of recombinants if plating on selective agar was delayed. Two separate processes were identified as being responsible for this decline. Those merozygotes in which the transferred DNA was free of the donor cell lost the ability to form recombinants through inactivation of this DNA, an effect which could be prevented by using exonuclease deficient (recB sbcB) recipients or by prior growth of exonuclease proficient recipients in medium containing 0·25 M sodium chloride. No more than 50% of the observed loss of recombinants could be attributed to this effect. The remaining merozygotes lost their ability for recombinant formation provided mating pairs, and presumably the displaced donor DNA strand, remained intact. This process was thought to involve withdrawal of transferred DNA (DeHaan & Gross, 1962) and was studied in isolation in matings with recA+, or recA200 recB sbcB recipients. A mechanism involving re-annealing of the displaced Hfr DNA to the donor molecule as a result of nalidixic inhibition of gyrase activity in the donor causing relaxation of DNA supercoils is proposed to account for this withdrawal event.

The mutations which block lycopene cyclization and those which stop substrate transfer along the carotene pathway are very closely linked in Phycomyces. Simultaneous blocking of both processes commonly results from single exposures to mutagens; and both blockings may be simultaneously removed after a second exposure. The frequencies of different kinds of mutants after treatments with the mutagens N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine and ICR-170, their reversion patterns, and recombination analyses indicate that lycopene cyclization and substrate transfer are governed by separate segments of a single bifunctional gene.

twPa−1 is a new lethal t-haplotype isolated in the South of France. Homozygous embryos die at the time of implantation or shortly there-after following general disorganization. twPa−1 complements all previously known t-haplotypes and has thus to be considered as the first representant of a new complementation group. twPa−2 and twPa−3 are viable, male sterile haplotypes, but twPa−2 is low transmitter.

The alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), aminopeptidase (AMP), endopeptidase (EP), and esterase (EST) zymogram phenotypes of Chinese Spring wheat, Betzes barley, Chinese Spring-Betzes heptaploids, and a number of presumptive Betzes chromosome additions to Chinese Spring were determined. It was found that four disomic chromosome addition lines could be distinguished from one another and from the other three possible lines on the basis of the zymogram phenotypes of these isozymes.

The structural gene Adh-H1 was located in Betzes chromosome 4, the genes Got-H2 and Amp-H1 in chromosome 6, and the gene Ep-H1 in chromosome 1. These gene locations provide evidence of homoeology between Betzes chromosomes 4, 6, and 1 and the Chinese Spring chromosomes of homoeologous groups 4, 6, and 7, respectively.

In Paramecium caudatum, syngen 3, cells become mature (i.e. capable of undergoing conjugation) by about 50 fissions after conjugation. Matingtype-instability, another mating characteristic, begins to occur between 80 and 120 fissions after conjugation in heterozygotes for the mating type locus (Myohara & Hiwatashi, 1975). Mating-type instability also occurs in dominant homozygotes, earlier than in heterozygotes. In two different early maturing mutants the homozygotes become mature 20 fissions earlier than in wild-type clones, and mating-type instabiliiy also begins earlier than in wild-type clones. The number of fissions from maturity to the occurrence of the mating type change does not differ.

G6PD measurements (expressed per g haemoglobin) in both males and females of the parental lines C57BL/6J and C57L/J and four recombinant inbred (RI) lines between them showed segregation of G6PD levels as parental classes (one line showed the higher C57BL/6J activity, three lines were indistinguishable from C57L/J). Haemoglobin also varied significantly among the parental and RI lines but this variation did not explain the variation in G6PD. NADP levels (expressed per g wet wt of erythrocytes) correlated with G6PD levels but one RI line was intermediate in males while two RI lines were lower than either parental line in females. Thus, the major autosomal locus affecting G6PD levels which segregates between these two inbred lines probably does not act directly on NADP levels. The variation in the G6PD levels in the four RI lines co-segregated with the brown coat color locus but the association is not significant because of the small number of RI lines available.

Meso-tartrate utilizing and resistant (mT+) recombinants were produced readily in transductions from an mT+ donor strain to 42 naturally occurring meso-tartrate non-utilizing and sensitive (mT−) recipient strains of Salmonella typhimurium, and were produced, sometimes as frequently, in interbiotype crosses between different pairs of strains from the mT− biotypes 2, 18, 26 and of the FIRN group (biotypes 30 and 32). These findings suggested that the sites of the mta mutations were independent in strains from the different mT− biotypes and were in agreement with their probable different lines of descent. Intrabiotype crosses indicated genetic homogeneity among strains of biotype 26 and among strains of biotype 30; on the other hand, they suggested that in each of the biotypes 2, 18 and 32, a minority of strains had mta mutations present at different intragenic sites from those of the majority of strains. The derivations of the strains of the minority types are discussed.

Plasmids R68 and R68.45 were transferred from Pseudomonas aeruginosa to Escherichia coli by conjugation. R68.45 was able to mobilize the E. coli chromosome from different origins at a frequency of about lO−6/donor cell. With R68, no transfer of chromosomal genes could be detected. Plasmid R68.45 differs from its parent R68 only by an additional DNA segment, 2120 bp long, located close to the kanamycin resistance gene. By restriction enzyme analysis it was shown that the additional DNA segment of R68.45 is a duplication of a pre-existing DNA region of R68. The duplicated region is characterized by the following sequence of restriction sites: A–310 bp–SmaI–70 bp–PstI–795 bp–PstI–15 bp–KpnI–540 bp–HpaI–370 bp–B.

The endpoints A and B of the duplicated region were determined by a heteroduplex experiment between HindIII linearized molecules of R68 and R68.45. It is proposed that this duplication found in R68.45 is responsible for its chromosome mobilizing ability.

Several of the B–A translocations of maize produce a small-kernel phenotype which is associated with hypoploid endosperms from fertilizations by sperm which result from nondisjunctional events of the B centromere at the second microspore division. Lin (1975) demonstrated that the small-kernel phenotype was not a consequence of the deficient nature of said endosperms, but involved a differential effect of male and female chromosomal regions.

The TB-A effect has been examined for evidence of autonomy in mosaics for the most extreme such case known, i.e. the small-kernel effect produced by the compound B–A translocation, 1La-5S8041. Although reduced-sized kernels are formed when the paternal contribution of the 1L-5S element is totally lacking from the endosperm, sectorial loss has no detrimental effect on dry weight. This phenomenon is therefore considered to be nonautonomous.