The cis-trans test shows no evidence for a functional relationship between two mouse t complex lethal mutations: implications for the evolution of t haplotypes.

Mouse t haplotypes often carry embryonic lethal mutations. Sixteen complementation groups are known, but the viability of the heterozygotes between them is often less than 100%. It has been reported that cis heterozygotes of two lethal mutations showed better viability than trans heterozygotes. This could indicate that the mutations were part of the same functional unit, even though they map up to 15 cM apart. However, the tw5 and tw12 haplotypes in our colony did not show a statistically significant decrease in viability when combined in trans. The cis-trans analysis was repeated using two independent chromosomes, derived by recombination between the tw5 and the tw12 haplotypes to provide the two lethal mutations in cis. Two independent chromosomes, representing the reciprocal recombination event, supplied the corresponding wild-type alleles in cis. These chromosomes were combined in the four pairwise combinations, and male/female reciprocal crosses were done. The cis heterozygotes showed a decrease, rather than an increase, in viability in seven of the eight cases. These results probably reflect effects of unrelated background genes. The lethal mutations, instead of being functionally related, may have occurred in a random, unrelated set of genes and may confer a selective advantage to t haplotypes found in wild populations.