Reciprocal translocations in Drosophila and their bearing on Oenothera cytology and genetics

Belling(1) suggested that the chromosome rings found in Oenothera by Cleland(2) and others are to be explained as resulting from exchanges of ends between non-homologous chromosomes, so that one chromosome of a given complex is homologous at one end to one chromosome of a second complex, and at the other end to a different chromosome of the second complex. Hlkansson(3) and Darlington(4) have elaborated this view. In a recent issue of this JOURNAL Cleland and Blakeslee(5) have carried the analysis through in detail, showing that it gives self-consistent results. It enables one to predict the configurations of untried combinations, and is to a certain extent in agreement with the genetic data of Renner(6) and Oehlkers.(7)