The mutagenic effects of diepoxybutane in wild-type and mutagen-sensitive mutants of Drosophila melanogaster.

Genetic tests reported here demonstrate that among the DEB-induced mutants on 2 X-chromosome loci, viz. y and w, at a minimum, one-third are chromosome deletions. Among 11 MMS-sensitive mutants tested, 9 are also somatically sensitive to DEB. In addition direct genetic tests established that the capacity to repair DEB damage induced in sperm is impaired in females homozygous for 2 mutagen-sensitive mutants. By inference the same is also the case in females homozygous for 3 other mutagen-sensitive mutants.