The use of genetic complementation in the study of eukaryotic macromolecular evolution: rate of spontaneous gene duplication at two loci of Drosophila melanogaster.

Gene duplications must play an important role in the evolutionary development of living organisms. Presented here is a general scheme that uses complementary alleles to isolate gene duplications in diploid organisms. The technique was used in Drosophila melanogaster to assess the rate of spontaneous gene duplication at two loci, maroon-like and rosy. The results indicate that the rate of duplication of the maroon-like locus is on the order of 2.7 X 10(-6); that the rate of duplication of the rosy locus is approximately 1.7 X 10(-4); and that duplication occurs in males, suggesting that there may actually be two modes of gene duplication in Drosophila melanogaster.