Male fertility in <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i>: Lesions of spermatogenesis associated with male sterile mutations of the <i>vermilion</i> region

Abstract

Abstract Of the four male sterile, ms , loci that have been identified in the vermilion region, 9F4 to 10C2, of Drosophila melanogaster , one specifically affects male fertility, whereas three influence male and female fertility and viability. Mutations at a testis‐specific locus (10A2‐5; 1‐33.44) blocked postmeiotic spermatid maturation at or before the coiling stage. Improper associations of the axonemal sheath with the axoneme and with the mitochondrial derivatives were common to spermiogenesis in adult ms (l)v3/Y and ms (l)v 6/Y males representing the locus. Abnormalities in premeiotic events of spermatogenesis were detected in the testes of ms (l) v7/Y (9F4 to 9F8‐9; 1‐32.82), ms (l) v1/Y (1‐B4‐5 to 10B16; 1‐34.61), and ms (l) v22/Y and l (l) v73 /Y males (10B4‐5 to 10B16; 1‐35.31). Differences in the characteristics of the premeiotic ms mutations suggested that each influences spermatogenesis in a unique way.