MUTATIONS IN GENES <i>spn-E, piwi</i><sup><i>2</i></sup><i>, </i>AND aub, INFLUENCING SMALL RNA PRODUCTION, DO NOT INFLUENCE THE RATE OF MUTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH A <i>hobo </i>INSERTION IN THE <i>yellow </i>GENE OF <i>DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER</i>
Effects of mutations in the spn-E, piwi2, and aub genes of Drosophila melanogaster, involved in small RNA production, on the mutation frequency in the highly unstable y+h allele, formed by an insertion of a hobo copy in the regulatory region of the yellow gene were studied. Mutation frequencies were assessed by crossing males with the genotypes y+h; piwi/Cy, y+h; piwi/piwi, y+h; aub/Cy andy+h; spn-E/TM3 to females with linked X-chromosomes. The frequency of mutations in the yellow gene depended to a greater extent on the cross to the strain with linked X-chromosomes than on the presence of a mutation in the spn-E, piwi2, or aub genes. The locus-specific instability iny+h allele is the sum of hobo transpositions and recombination events involving the hobo from the regulatory region of yellow. It appears that either the mutations under study do not affect the activity of the hobo copy or recombinations between hobos are much more significant for the locus-specific instability in yellow than the transposition rate.