ANTIBIOTICS AND INFECTIOUS HYBRID STERILITY IN DROSOPHILA PAULISTORUM

Santa Marta and Mesitas (Colombia) strains of Drosophila paulistorum produce, when crossed, sterile males in the F1 and in several backcross generations. The antibiotics toyocamycin nucleoside and gliotoxin (100 μg/ml) were ingested by female parents produced from eggs deposited upon and developed in drug-impregnated medium. The proportions of males capable of developing motile sperm in the hybrids are higher in the progenies of drugtreated mothers than in the controls. Toyocamycin and gliotoxin apparently retard the growth of the cytoplasmic factor (a virus or a rickettsia) which causes the maternally transmitted sterility of these hybrid males. © 1968 Springer-Verlag.