INHERITANCE OF RADIATION-INDUCED SPINAL CURVATURES IN THE GUPPY LEBISTES RETICULATUS

Abstract

Hereditary changes in the shape of the vertebral column in Lebistes reticulatus appeared after ancestral irradiation of immature germ cells with 500 or 1000 R of X-rays. Although the mutant to wild-type ratios in the F2 generation after outcrossing fitted a digenic and a trigenic segregation ratio, respectively, the quantitative characters in question are assumed to be caused by recessive mutations of polygenes which are highly mutable.