CROSSOVER SUPPRESSORS IN TRIBOLIUM-CASTANEUM

The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, has been used to investigat e population and quantitative genetics for decades, By using this pest of stored grain, it is possible to conduct fine structure genetic ana lyses in a representative of an extremely successful, diverse, and eco nomically important animal group, the beetles, We are interested in fu rther improving this facility by developing chromosome balancers for T ribolium. Therefore, we investigated the possibility of inducing and s electing chromosomes that suppress recombination in the Tribolium geno me, Translocations were identified in several screens involving four d ifferent linkage groups, An inversion was identified in one screen tha t suppressed recombination over 30 cM of the genome, This dominantly m arked chromosome rearrangement was associated with normal fertility, f ecundity, and developmental rate, and became the basis for a series of crossover suppressors developed for the longest Tribolium chromosome, The ability of these crossover suppressors to serve as balancer chrom osomes was demonstrated in screens for new mutations and linked molecu lar markers, During the course of these experiments, the resolution of the Tribolium genomic map was improved.