A Critique of the Theory of Evolution Part 5

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 51. The two maturation divisions of the egg. The divisions are unequal, so that two small polar bodies are formed one of these subsequently divides. The three polar bodies and the egg are comparable to the four sperms.]

When the eggs are fertilized the whole number of chromosomes is restored again.

THE MECHANISM OF MENDELIAN HEREDITY DISCOVERED IN THE BEHAVIOR OF THE CHROMOSOMES

If the factors in heredity are carried in the chromosomes and if the chromosomes are definite structures, we should antic.i.p.ate that there should be as many _groups_ of characters as there are kinds of chromosomes. In only one case has a sufficient number of characters been studied to show whether there is any correspondence between the number of hereditary groups of characters and the number of chromosomes. In the fruit fly, Drosophila ampelophila, we have found about 125 characters that are inherited in a perfectly definite way. On the opposite page is a list of some of them.

It will be observed in this list that the characters are arranged in four groups, Groups I, II, III and IV. Three of these groups are equally large or nearly so; Group IV contains only two characters. The characters are put into these groups because in heredity the members of each group tend to be inherited together, i.e., if two or more enter the cross together they tend to remain together through subsequent generations. On the other hand, any member of one group is inherited entirely independently of any member of the other groups; in the same way as Mendel's yellow-green pair of characters is inherited independently of the round-wrinkled pair.

_Group I_ _Group II_ _Group III_ _Group IV_ Abnormal Antlered Band Bent Bar Apterous Beaded Eyeless Bifid Arc Cream III Bow Balloon Deformed Cherry Black Dwarf Chrome Blistered Ebony Cleft Comma Giant Club Confluent Kidney Depressed Cream II Low crossing over Dot Curved Maroon Eosin Dachs Peach Facet Extra vein Pink Forked Fringed Rough Furrowed Jaunty Safranin Fused Limited Sepia Green Little crossover Sooty Jaunty Morula Spineless Lemon Olive Spread Lethals, 13 Plexus Trident Miniature Purple Truncate intensifier Notch Speck Whitehead Reduplicated Strap White ocelli Ruby Streak Rudimentary Trefoil Sable Truncate Shifted Vestigial Short Skee Spoon Spot Tan Truncate intensifier Vermilion White Yellow

If the factors for these characters are carried by the chromosomes, then we should expect that those factors that are carried by the same chromosome would be inherited together, provided the chromosomes are definite structures in the cell.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 52. Chromosomes (diploid) of D. ampelophila. The s.e.x chromosomes are XX in the female and XY in the male. There are three other pairs of chromosomes.]

In the chromosome group of Drosophila, (fig. 52) there are _four_ pairs of chromosomes, three of nearly the same size and one much smaller. Not only is there agreement between the number of hereditary groups and the number of the chromosomes, but even the size relations are the same, for there are three great groups of characters and three pairs of large chromosomes, and one small group of characters and one pair of small chromosomes.

THE FOUR GREAT LINKAGE GROUPS OF DROSOPHILA AMPELOPHILA

The following description of the characters of the wild fly may be useful in connection with the account of the modifications of these characters that appear in the mutants.

The head and thorax of the wild fly are grayish-yellow, the abdomen is banded with alternate stripes of yellow and black. In the male, (fig. 4 to right), there are three narrow bands and a black tip. In the female there are five black bands (fig. 4 to left). The wings are gray with a surface texture of such a kind that at certain angles they are iridescent. The eyes are a deep, solid, brick-red. The minute hairs that cover the body have a very definite arrangement that is most obvious on the head and thorax.

There is a definite number of larger hairs called bristles or chaetae which have a characteristic position and are used for diagnostic purposes in cla.s.sifying the species. On the foreleg of the male there is a comb-like organ formed by a row of bristles; it is absent in the female. The comb is a secondary s.e.xual character, and it is, so far as known, functionless.

Some of the characters of the mutant types are shown in figures 53, 54, 55, 56. The drawing of a single fly is often used here to ill.u.s.trate more than one character. This is done to economize s.p.a.ce, but of course there would be no difficulty in actually bringing together in the same individual any two or more characters belonging to the same group (or to different groups). Without colored figures it is not possible to show many of the most striking differences of these mutant races; at most dark and light coloring can be indicated by the shading of the body, wings, or eyes.

_Group I_

In the six flies drawn in figure 53 there are shown five different wing characters. The first of these types (a) is called cut, because the ends of the wings look as though they had been cut to a point. The antennae are displaced downward and appressed and their bristle-like aristae are crumpled.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 53. Group I. (See text)]

The second figure (b) represents a fly with a notch in the ends of the wings. This character is dominant, but the same factor that produces the notch in the wings is also a recessive lethal factor; because of this latter effect of the character no males of this race exist, and the females of the race are never pure but hybrid. Every female with notch wings bred to a wild male, will produce in equal numbers notch winged daughters and daughters with normal wings. There will be half as many sons as daughters.

The explanation of this peculiar result is quite simple. Every notch winged female has one X chromosome that carries the factor for notch and one X chromosome that is "normal". Daughters receiving the former chromosomes are notched because the factor for notch is dominant, but they are not killed since the lethal effect of the notch factor is recessive to the normal allelomorph carried by the other chromosome that the daughters get from their father. This normal factor is recessive for notch but dominant for life. This same figure (b) is used here to show three other s.e.x linked characters. The spines on the thorax are twisted or kinky, which is due to a factor called "forked". The effect is best seen on the thorax, but all spines on the body are similarly modified; even the minute hairs are also affected. Ruby eye color might be here represented--if the eyes in the figure were colored. The lighter color of the body and antennae is intended to indicate that the character tan is also present. The light color of the antennae is the most certain way of identifying tan. The tan flies are interesting because they have lost the positive heliotropism that is so marked a feature in the behavior of D. ampelophila. As this peculiarity of the tan flies is inherited like all the other s.e.x linked characters, it follows that when a tan female is bred to a wild male all the sons inherit the recessive tan color and indifference to light, while the daughters show the dominant s.e.x linked character of their father, i.e., they are "gray", and go to the light. Hence when such a brood is disturbed the females fly to the light, but the males remain behind.

One of the first mutants that appeared in D. ampelophila was called rudimentary on account of the condition of the wings (c). The same mutation has appeared independently several times. In the drawing (c) the dark body color is intended to indicate "sable" and the lighter color of the eyes is intended to indicate eosin. This eye color, which is an allelomorph of white, is also interesting because in the female the color is deeper than in the male. In other cases of s.e.x linked factors the character is the same in the two s.e.xes.

In the fourth figure (d) the third and fourth longitudinal veins of the wing are _fused_ into one vein from the base of the wing to the level of the first cross-vein and in addition converge and meet near their outer ends. The shape of the eye is represented in the figure as different from the normal, due to another factor called "bar". This is a dominant character, the hybrid condition being also narrow, but not so narrow as the pure type. Vermilion eye color might also be here represented--due to a factor that has appeared independently on several occasions.

In the fifth figure (e) the wings are shorter and more pointed than in the wild fly. This character is called miniature. The light color of the drawing may be taken to represent yellow body color, and the light color of the eye white eye color.

In the last figure (f) the wings are represented as pads, essentially in the same condition that they are in when the fly emerges from the pupa case. Not all the flies of this stock have the wings in this condition; some have fully expanded wings that appear normal in all respects.

Nevertheless, about the same percentage of offspring show the pads irrespective of whether the parents had pads or expanded wings.

The flies of this stock show, however, another character, which is a product of the same factor, and which is constant, i.e., repeated in all individuals. The two bristles on the sides of the thorax are constantly absent in this race. The lighter color of the eye in the figure may be taken to indicate buff--a faint yellowish color. The factor for this eye color is another allelomorph of white.

There are many other interesting characters that belong to the first group, such as abnormal abdomen, short legs, duplication of the legs, etc. In fact, any part of the body may be affected by a s.e.x-linked factor.

_Group II_

In the first figure (a) of figure 54 that contains members of Group II the wings are almost entirely absent or "vestigial". This condition arose at a single step and breeds true, although it appears to be influenced to some extent by temperature, also by modifiers that sometimes appear in the stock. Purple eye color belongs in Group II; it resembles the color of the eye of the wild fly but is darker and more translucent.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 54. Group II. (See text.)]

In the second figure (b) the wing is again long and narrow and sometimes bent back on itself, as shown here. In several respects the wing resembles strap (d) but seems to be due to another factor, called antler, insufficiently studied as yet.

In the third figure (c) the wings turn up at the end. This is brought about by the presence of the factor called jaunty.

In the fourth figure the wings are long and narrow and several of the veins are unrepresented. This character, "strap", is very variable and has not yet been thoroughly studied. On the thorax there is a deep black mark called trefoil. Even in the wild fly there is a three p.r.o.nged mark on the thorax present in many individuals. Trefoil is a further development and modification of this mark and is due to a special factor.

In the fifth figure (e) the wings are arched. The factor is called arc. The dark color of the body, and especially of the wings, indicates the factor for black.

The sixth figure (f) shows the wings "curved" downwards. In addition there is present a minute black speck at the base of each wing, due to another factor called speck.

In the seventh figure (g) the wing is truncate. Its end is obliquely squared instead of rounded; it may be longer than the body, or shorter when other modifying factors are present. The mutation that produces this type of wing is of not infrequent occurrence. It has been shown by Muller and Altenburg that there are at least two factors that modify this character--the chief factor is present in the second chromosome; alone it produces the truncate wing in only a certain percentage of cases, but when the modifiers are also present about ninety percent of the individuals may show the truncate condition of the wing. But the presence of these factors makes the stock very infertile, so that it is difficult to maintain.

In the eighth figure (h) the legs are shortened owing to the absence of a segment of the tarsus. The stock is called dachs--a nickname given to it because the short legs suggested the dachshund.

_Group III_

In figure 55, (a), a mutant type called bithorax is shown. The old metathorax is replaced by another mesothorax thrust in between the normal mesothorax and the abdomen. It carries a pair of wings that do not completely unfold. On this new mesothorax the characteristic arrangement of the bristles is shown. Thus at a single step a typical region of the body has doubled. The character is recessive.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 55. Group III. (See text.)]

The size of the adult fly of D. ampelophila varies greatly according to the amount of nourishment obtained by the larva. After the fly emerges its size remains nearly constant, as in many insects. Two races have, however, been separated by Bridges that are different in size as a result of a genetic factor. The first of these, called dwarf, is represented by figure 55, (b).

The race is minute, although of course its size is variable, depending on food and other conditions. The same figure shows the presence of another factor, "sooty", that makes the fly very dark. Maroon eye color might be here represented, due to still another factor.

In the third figure (c) the other mutation in size is shown. It is called "giant". The flies are twice the size of wild flies. An eye color, called peach, might here be represented. It is an allelomorph of pink.

In the fourth figure (d) the mutant called dichaete is shown. It is characterized by the absence of two of the bristles on the thorax. Other bristles may also be absent, but not so constantly as the two just mentioned. Another effect of the same factor is the spread-out condition of the wings. The very dark eye color in this figure may be taken to indicate the presence of another factor, "sepia", which causes the eyes to a.s.sume a brown color that becomes black with age. Most of the other mutations in eye color that have occurred tend to give a lighter color: this one, which is also recessive, makes the eye darker.

In the fifth figure (e) the color of the darkest fly is due to a factor called ebony, which is an allelomorph of sooty.

In the sixth figure (f) the wings are beaded, i.e., the margin is defective at intervals, giving a beaded-like outline to the wings. This condition is very variable and much affected by other factors that influence the shape of the wings. The lighter eye color of the drawing may be taken to represent pink.

In the seventh figure (g) the wings are curled up over the back. This is a recessive character.

_Group IV_

Only two mutants have been obtained that do not belong to any of the preceding groups; these are put together in Group IV. It has been shown that they are linked to each other and the linkage is so close that it has thus far been impossible to obtain the dominant recessive. One of these mutants, called "eyeless" (fig. 56, a, a^1), is variable--the eyes are often entirely absent or represented by one or more groups of ommatidia.

The outline of the original eye, so to speak, is strongly marked out and its area might be called a rudimentary organ, if such a statement has any meaning here.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 56. Group IV. (See text.)]

The other figure (b) represents "bent", so called from the shape of the wings. This mutant is likewise very variable, often indistinguishable from the wild type, yet when well developed strikingly different from any other mutant.

This brief account of a few of the mutant races that can be most easily represented by uncolored figures will serve to show how all parts of the body may change, some of the changes being so slight that they would be overlooked except by an expert, others so great that in the character affected the flies depart far from the original species.