[Ectopic interactions of Drosophila melanogaster polytene chromosomes in the H-E system of hybrid dysgenesis]

Analysis of salivary gland polytene chromosomes of Drosophila melanogaster age III larvae has demonstrated that inversions make up high percentage of aberrations induced by transposition of the hobo element. The frequency of inversions increases upon irradiation. In view of the fact that transpositions of mobile elements and irradiation can considerably affect the homology of associating regions, ectopic chromosome contacts were analysed. On the one hand, this analysis has revealed general features for all types of crosses, such as the prevalence of intrachromosomal contacts over interchromosomal ones, predominant localization of both types of contacts in telomeric regions of chromosomes and lower frequency of their occurrence on X chromosome in males as compared with females. On the other hand, the specificity of ectopic conjugation in different types of crosses has been determined. Given a constant average frequency of ectopic contacts in the D. melanogaster genome, differences in their distribution in chromosomes have been detected. Chromosomes of pure lines differ from their homologues in dysgenic hybrids by distribution of ectopic conjugation peaks and by localization of a number of unique events. On the basis of our own experiments and literature data, the role of ectopic contacts as structural formations connecting chromosome regions similar in their functional activity, rather than in nucleic-protein characteristics, is discussed.