Chemical and radiation induced late dominant lethal effects in mice.

Although theoretically expected, experimental data to date have not shown dominant lethal expression to occur throughout the developmental period. Specifically, late post-implantation effects have not been demonstrated. We routinely use an experimental technique in which parental females mated to mutagenically treated males are allowed to give birth and wean their litter, and their uterine horns are then inspected for uterine scars indicative of live and dead embryos. In a number of experiments in which males were mutagenically treated with either chemicals or X-irradiation, a discrepancy was observed between the number of live embryos as determined by the scar technique and the number of live observed at birth, suggesting the possibility of embryonic losses at a late stage in development. Initial analyses showed that mutagenic treatment increased the percentage of these late losses. These differences were statistically significant in 2 of 3 analyses. Factors affecting statistical significance and an understanding of dominant lethal mutations are discussed.