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Here we bring together our published and unpublished work with recent published findings of other laboratories to provide a revised map of the centromeric heterochromatin of chromosome 2 and descriptions of the 21 genetic elements therein. These elements consist of 16 vital loci, one male and one female sterile loci, one Minute locus, and two components of the Segregation Distorter system. Based on our latest analysis of the lethal mutant phenotypes of the vital genes, we have provided names for several genes that were previously known by their lethal number assignments.

The induction and analysis of numerous translocations (identified genetically and characterized cytologically) between chromosomes 2 and 3 of Drosophila melanogaster have allowed us to reexamine three issues concerning the nature of radiation-induced interchanges in spermatozoa. First, our results support the idea that, relative to their mitotic metaphase length, all major chromosomal regions are similar in their breakability, whether euchromatic (proximal or distal) or heterochromatic. Second, analysis of all our reciprocal exchanges between the two chromosomes shows a statistically significant dependence of the position of the chromosome 2 breakpoint on that of the chromosome 3 breakpoint. Thirdly, our combined cytological and genetic approach strengthens the results of previous analyses, which suggested a strong tendency for chromosomal interchanges to be of the reciprocal type in multiple-break rearrangements. This indicates that if radiation induces chromosome breaks, then the resulting broken ends tend to rejoin in pairs rather than independently.