Drosophila fly lethal mutation?

Question

I've got a wild type female x star eyes male genetics question, and the F1 progeny comes out as:

Female wild type 2522

Male wild type 2534

Female star eyes 2529

Male star eyes 2487

This pretty much gives a ratio of 1:1:1:1.

When I try to do the F2 progeny, a message comes up saying "the F1 flies cannot be crossed as the ratios are wrong for that option".

We're not given any information if the mutation is recessive/dominant (that's what we're to find out). But we also have to explain how the ratio happened. I've got no idea. I've got a feeling that the mutation is lethal, because the lecturer dropped hints, but he's not helping us any further.

Can you please help explain to me how this happens and if it's lethal/s*x-linked/autosomal?

Answer 1

You're on the right track.  See the appendix at this site (near the bottom) for important info on Drosophila genetics, including Star eyes (S*):  http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/uni...

Also, a similar set of problems to yours, with additional information:  http://genetics.med.harvard.edu/genetics...