Repeated efforts to estimate the genomic deleterious mutation rate per generation (U) in Drosophila melanogaster have yielded inconsistent estimates ranging from 0(.)01 to nearly 1. We carried out a mutation-accumulation experiment with a cryopreserved control population in hopes of resolving some of the uncertainties raised by these estimates. Mutation accumulation (MA) was carried out by brother-sister mating of 150 sublines derived from two inbred lines. Fitness was measured under conditions chosen to mimic the ancestral laboratory environment of these genotypes. We monitored the insertions of a transposable element, copia, that proved to accumulate at the unusually high rate of 0(.)24 per genome per generation in one of our MA lines. Mutational variance in fitness increased at a rate consistent with previous studies, yielding a mutational coefficient of variation greater than 3%. The performance of the cryopreserved control relative to the MA lines was inconsistent, so estimates of mutation rate by the Bateman-Mukai method are suspect. Taken at face value, these data suggest a modest decline in fitness of about 0(.)3% per generation. The element number of copia was a significant predictor of fitness within generations; on average, insertions caused a 0(.)76% loss in fitness, although the confidence limits on this estimate are wide.
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