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NOV 26 1921

Communicated by T. H. Morgan, March 10, 1921

A recent paper in this journal by Detlefsen1 is introduced as follows: "There is a well intrenched concept of recent genetics that hereditary factors or genes may be given fairly definite loci on chromosome maps and that these maps correspond to or represent, roughly perhaps, the actual conditions in the chromosome. The basis for this attractive and suggestive view is the premise that the distance between two genes is necessarily proportional to the percentage of crossing over which these two genes show, other things being equal. If the distance which gives one per cent of crossovers is used as an arbitrary unit of measurement, then it follows that distances on the chromosome may be calculated in terms of this unit. It has seemed to me for some time that the antecedent in this hypothetical proposition contains a more or less gratuitous assumption. We do not know that the distance which gives 1% (or n%) of crossovers is a fixed unit. Stated differently. we do not know how constant the percentage of crossing over may be between two genes to which we give a fixed distance, i.e., our arbitrary unit of measurement may itself prove to be a variable. It may be possible for the distance which gives 1% of crossing over to differ in different females of the same population, or differ between stocks. In order to throw some light on these questions I began a set of experiments in 1916........."

Detlefsen then gives an account of an experiment in which crossover values for the white and miniature loci (in the X-chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster) ranging from 0% to about 33% have been obtained. Crosses between "high" and "low" lines are taken to indicate that a number of genetic factors influence the percentage of crossing over. The paper closes as follows:

"In view of these considerations it would perhaps be simpler to conclude that linkage is not a function of distance, i.e., crossing over is not necessarily proportional to distance. The distance between two genes may remain fairly constant, but the amount of crossing over depends upon numerous hereditary factors."

One unfamiliar with the literature of the subject would probably infer from Detlefsen's paper that the possibility of inherited linkage variations had not been taken into account by those concerned in constructing chromosome maps. In point of fact, the matter has not only been taken into account, but has been often discussed in the literature, as the following references will show.