The sources of genetic variability in highly inbred long-term selected strains of Drosophila melanogaster.

A highly inbred, long-term selected for low fitness strain LA of Drosophila melanogaster possesses a significant mutational load and unusually high rates of spontaneous mutability as revealed by CyL/Pm method. Our results indicate that during cross of CyL/Pm to LA strains, destabilization of copia-like and mobile elements and induction of H-E hybrid dysgenesis take place. The role of these processes in causing considerable genetic variability of LA strain is discussed.