1. Dynamics of mutational process and natural populations gene pool in Drosophila melanogaster.

2. Unstable X-linked mutations and mutator genes from natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster.

3. Analyses of the ustable systems sn49 and XZ in Drosophila melanogaster.

4. Drosophila species in Eurasian continent.

5. Mutagenesis.

Due to scientific descendance of some generations of Russian population geneticists, it became possible to accumulate together the data obtained during systematic studies of mutational gene content of Drosophila melanogaster natural populations on the vast territory of the former Soviet Union in the period from 1931 to 1993. As a result of these studies, some periods of synchronous global and local increases and decreases in concentration and mutability of certain mutations were detected. These periods were termed as mutational bursts or mutational vogue. In 1937, the sex linked mutations yellow and, in a less extent, white and singed gained universal currency, their frequency and concentration being increased. The burst was followed up to 1946. Beginning from 1968 up to 1976, the abnormal abdomen phenotypical mutations became vastly distributed throughout all Soviet Union populations of Drosophila melanogaster studied. As this took place, the concentration of aberrant flyes reached tens of percents. Recurring of mutational activity enlargement of the singed gene occured in 1973 and lasted up to 1979. This enlargement occupied the whole species areal (following mosaic structure) on the contrary to the local pattern of recurring distribution for the yellow mutation in 1982-1992. This burst was observed only in one population of Drosophila melanogaster, namely, in Uman, the Ukraine. Every period of enlarged concentration and frequency of de novo appearance is characterized by its own unique mutational and allele spectrum, which determines the burst. The dynamics of concentration level and occurrence frequency also determine the burst periods.

One of the main properties of the most yellow and singed alleles isolated from natural populations is their genetic instability. Phenotypically normal revertants were unstable too. The ability to interallelic transition may be conserved throughout prolonged breeding period of the strains at the laboratory. The classification of isolated yellow and singed alleles and their derivatives, which were obtained at the laboratory as a result of mutations, was carried out accoding to the character and extent of their mutational expression, spectrum, and mutational frequences. An allelospecificity concerning the mutational properties, both mutational frequency and repertour of interallelic transitions, was observed.

A comparative analysis of mutational burst is performed, factors and mechanisms of locus-specific mutational activity are being discussed. The role of mobile elements and mutators genes in the process of formation of genetic variability and instability in natural populations is being speculated. The data are being interpreted in the context of the insertional mutagenesis principles.

The spontaneous mutations of the genes yellow, white, singed and chromosomal rearrangements are typical for XZ chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster, isolated from the natural population. In the stocks of mutant derivatives of XZ chromosome, which contain single, two and three unstable visible mutations (markers), the frequency of arising of sex linked lethal mutations was analysed. It turned out that the frequency of sex linked lethal mutations increases with the growth of the number of the markers in the stock. The phenomenon described was denoted as "marker induction" and possibly can explain the fact of phenotypic homogeneity in natural populations of Drosophila. The lethal mutations which spontaneously arose were localized. It was shown that mutations are nonrendomly distributed along XZ chromosome. The derivatives of XZ chromosome have specific cites of arising of lethal mutations alongside with the common cites of "hot spots" of lethal mutagenesis. In some cases, the arising of lethal mutations was accompanied by inversions in XZ chromosome. It is possible that the lethal destabilization of derivatives of XZ chromosome, appeared due to selection accumulating visible mutations, is the result of the multiplication the hot spots of mobile genetic element transpositions.

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23. Skibitskii E.E., Koryakov D.E., Yurchenko N.N., Zakharov I.K. A derivative of the X^Z chromosome causes a change in mutability properties of homologous chromosome genes from unstable strains in Drosophila melanogaster // Russ. J. Genetics. 1996. V. 32. No. 7. P. 822-824.

24. Ivannikov A.V., Zakharov I.K. Differences in mutation rates between males with small and large body sizes from natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster // Drosophila Inform. Serv. 1996. No. 77. P. 136-137.

25. Raushenbach I.Yu., Gruntenko N.E., Khlebodarova T.M., Mazurov M.M., Grenback L.G., Sukhanova M.Jh., Shumnaya L.V., Zakharov I.K., Hammock B.D. The role of the degradation system of the juvenile hormone in the reproduction of Drosophila under stress // J. Insect Physiology. 1996. V. 42. No. 8. P. 735-742.

26. Yurchenko N.N., L.-Y. Tam., O'Hare K., Zakharov I.K. The effects of the transposon at the singed locus on recombination in Drosophila melanogaster // Russ. J. Genetics. 1997. V. 33. No. 3. P. 262-266.

27. Zakharenko L.P., Zakharov I.K., Vasyunina E.A., Karamysheva T.V., Danilenko A.M., Nikiforov A.A. Determinatio of genotoxicity of Fullerene C₆₀ and Fullerol by the somatic mutation and recombination test in Drosophila melanogaster and SOS chromotest // Russ. J. Genetics. 1997. V. 32. No. 3. P. 327-330.

28. Zakharenko L.P., Zakharov I.K. Ethanol suppresses recombination in somatic cells of -irradiated larvae of Drosophila melanogaster // Russ. J. Genetics. 1998. V. 34. No. 3. P. 281-284.

29. O'Hare K., Tam J.L.-Y., Lim J.K., Yurchenko N.N., Zakharov I.K. Rearrangements at a hobo element inserted into the first intron of the singed gene in the unstable sn49 system of Drosophila melanogaster // Mol. Gen. Genet. 1998. V. 257. No. 4. P. 452-460.

The grants of RFBR

Collaboration with Dr. Kevin O'Hare from Department of Biochemistry Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2AZ, UK (Travelling Research Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust in 1994 (UK).