Autonomy or Nonautonomy of Gene Effects in Mosaics

The dominant autosomal gene Msc (Multiple sex combs) of Drosophila causes the appearance of sex combs on the second and third legs and a reduction of size of sex combs on first legs. The effect of Msc was studied in mosaic flies in which non-Msc spots were present on a Msc background. Mosaics were due to somatic crossing-over induced by x-rays. Analysis of mosaics suggested autonomy of the action of Msc, provided that the somatic crossing-over occurs less frequently proximally to the Msc locus than distally. This unusual ratio of somatic crossing-over was confirmed by a separate experiment with the gene Kinked, whose locus is very close to Msc.