Ferree, P.M., Gomez, K., Rominger, P., Howard, D., Kornfeld, H., Barbash, D.A. (2014). Heterochromatin Position Effects on Circularized Sex Chromosomes Cause Filicidal Embryonic Lethality in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 196(4): 1001--1005.
FlyBase ID
FBrf0224648
Publication Type
Research paper
Abstract
Some circularized X-Y chromosomes in Drosophila melanogaster are mitotically unstable and induce early embryonic lethality, but the genetic basis is unknown. Our experiments suggest that a large region of X-linked satellite DNA causes anaphase bridges and lethality when placed into a new heterochromatic environment within certain circularized X-Y chromosomes. These results reveal that repetitive sequences can be incompatible with one another in cis. The lethal phenotype also bears a remarkable resemblance to a case of interspecific hybrid lethality.
