Introduction of a Lethal Allele into a Feral House Mouse Population

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Abstract
Male Mus musculus known to be heterozygous for a recessive lethal''allele (genotype +/twIIl) were released in 1956 and 1957 on Great Gull Island, Long Island Sound, N. Y. The feral mouse population inhabitfng the island had been previously tested and found to be free of such alleles. Samples taken from the population in 1957 and 1958 failed to reveal the presence of this allele, but mice heterozygous for a lethal allele at locus T were found in 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1962. Tests of offspring of these heterozygotes, sired in laboratory test matings, indicated that the recovered allele does not differ from tw11. The allele appears to have established a high frequency in the release area, but to have spread slowly. Since it is an unconditional prenatal lethal in the homozygote, its successful introduction is attributed to the high transmission ratio which characterizes such alleles in heterozygous males from wild populations. Analysis of test matings indicates that this ratio has remained constant in the new genetic and ecological environment to which it was introduced.