Partial complementation by murine t haplotypes: Deficit of males among t6/tw5 double heterozygotes and correlation with transmission-ratio distortion

Abstract

To evaluate whether sex reversal contributes to sex-ratio imbalance among t6/tw5 double heterozygotes, the cross performed by K. B. Bechtol (Genetical Research 39, 1982, 79–84), T/t6 × T/tw5, was repeated. Significantly more normal-tailed (t6/tw5) females than males were recovered. By contrast, sex ratios were normal among tailless progeny resulting from this cross and among all classes produced by control crosses. Hybridization of a Y-specific DNA probe with genomic DNA from phenotypic females revealed no XY, sex-reversed males. On the genetic backgrounds that generated only moderate transmission distortion of tw5 (81–85%), the overall viability of the doubly heterozygous progeny was only 50% and the sex-ratio skew among this class was strong. However, on a genetic background that displayed extreme tw5 transmission (99%), embryonic viability was more than 80% and the sex-ratio imbalance was weak. © 1991, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.