scholarly journals LINKAGE DISEQUILIBRIUM IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER. SEASONAL VARIATION

Genetics ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 447-454
Author(s):  
Charles H Langley ◽  
Kazuko Ito ◽  
Robert A Voelker

ABSTRACT Linkage disequilibrium among ten polymorphic allozyme loci and polymorphic inversions on chromosomes 2 and 3 in a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster was examined early and late in the annual season. Similar to previous studies, little linkage disequilibrium was observed among allozymes. The two significant cases that were observed in the first sample behaved in a contradictory way. One declined much more rapidly than expected due simply to recombination; the other declined slowly as expected. There was little change in allozyme or inversion frequencies during the season.

1978 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Langley ◽  
Diana B. Smith ◽  
F. M. Johnson

SUMMARYLinkage disequilibria between pairs of 8 polymorphic enzyme loci (αGpdh, Mdh, Adh, Est-6, Pgm, Odh, Est-C and Acph) in some 100 natural population samples of Drosophila melanogaster were examined. The estimates of linkage disequilibrium were made from zygotic frequencies. The magnitude of linkage disequilibria are small and similar to those in previous reports. Variation in linkage disequilibrium among related subpopulations was analysed by analysis of variance of the correlation coefficients. Despite the small absolute value of linkage disequilibrium there is a suggestion of a correlation among related subpopulations. The magnitude of linkage disequilibrium was observed to be positively correlated with linkage. Two cage populations were observed to demonstrate large amounts of linkage disequilibrium between closely linked loci in contrast to the situation in natural populations. This is attributable to the finite sizes of these cage populations.


Genetics ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-359
Author(s):  
Brian Charlesworth ◽  
Deborah Charlesworth

ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of a study of linkage disequilibrium between five polymorphic enzyme genes located on chromosome 3 of D. melamgaster. Three sets of chromosomes were examined: two represented samples from successive years of the same natural population, and one came from a large laboratory population. Out of the thirty possible tests for linkage disequilibrium between pairs of loci, two were significant at the 5% level and two at the 1% level. This result cannot reasonably be ascribed to chance alone. The pairs of loci that had a significant correlation in one sample had higher than average correlations in the other samples (though not necessarily in the same direction); this effect was highly significant statistically. There was no tendency for the high correlations to be associated with tightness of linkage between the loci concerned. All five loci were involved in at least one significant effect. It was concluded that these results are difficult to explain on the neutral allele theory of protein polymorphism, but are consistent with the concept of selective control of allele frequencies.


Genetics ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 921-936
Author(s):  
Charles H Langley ◽  
Yoshiko N Tobari ◽  
Ken-Ichi Kojima

ABSTRACT Two large, stable populations (Texas and Japan) of Drosophila melanogaster were surveyed at 21 allozyme loci on the second and third chromosomes and for chromosomal gene arrangements on those two chromosomes. Over 220 independent gametes were sampled from each population. The types and frequencies of the surveyed genetic variation are similar to those observed previously and suggest only slight differentiation among geographically distant populations. Linkage disequilibrium among linked allozymes loci is only slightly, if at all, detectable with these sample sizes. Linkage disequilibrium between linked inversions and allozymes loci is common especially when located in the same arm. These disequilibria appear to be in the same direction for most comparisons in the two population samples. This result is interpreted as evidence of similar selective environments (ecological and genetic) in the two populations. It is also noted that the direction of these linkage disequilibria appears to be oriented with respect to the gene frequencies at the component loci.


Genetics ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 569-589
Author(s):  
Martin L Tracey ◽  
Francisco J Ayala

ABSTRACT Recent studies of genetically controlled enzyme variation lead to an estimation that at least 30 to 60% of the structural genes are polymorphic in natural populations of many vertebrate and invertebrate species. Some authors have argued that a substantial proportion of these polymorphisms cannot be maintained by natural selection because this would result in an unbearable genetic load. If many polymorphisms are maintained by heterotic natural selection, individuals with much greater than average proportion of homozygous loci should have very low fitness. We have measured in Drosophila melanogaster the fitness of flies homozygous for a complete chromosome relative to normal wild flies. A total of 37 chromosomes from a natural population have been tested using 92 experimental populations. The mean fitness of homozygous flies is 0.12 for second chromosomes, and 0.13 for third chromosomes. These estimates are compatible with the hypothesis that many (more than one thousand) loci are maintained by heterotic selection in natural populations of D. melanogaster.


1985 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. R. Rhomberg ◽  
S. Joseph ◽  
R. S. Singh

Patterns of geographic and seasonal genetic variation were assessed in natural populations of cyclically parthenogenetic rose aphids Macrosiphum rosae (L.). Nine populations were studied for a red–green colour morph and 30 allozyme loci (20 coding for enzymes and 10 for abundant proteins). Genetic variation was found at 5 of 20 enzyme loci (20%); all 10 abundant proteins proved monomorphic. The average heterozygosity was 4.3%. At some polymorphic loci genotypic frequencies showed significant deviations from Hardy–Weinberg proportions. Six local populations from Hamilton, Ontario, were studied for seasonal variation at the colour locus and at two polymorphic esterase loci (Est-2 and Est-4). All three loci showed large changes in genotypic frequencies over the season during the asexual cycle, but only for Est-4 were changes consistent among populations. This locus undergoes a regular seasonal cycle, the directional changes during the asexual phase presumably being balanced by changes during the sexual phase. The frequencies of three-locus genotypes within each locality fluctuated dramatically over the course of a season, reflecting the domination of local infestations by a few particularly successful clones. We speculate that because of such clonal competition followed by extensive migration, much of the selectively neutral variation is purged from aphid populations. The remaining polymorphic loci, which are mostly di- or tri-allelic, are subject to balancing natural selection at the gene or at closely linked loci. The Est-4 in rose aphids is an example of such a selectively maintained polymorphism.Key words: aphids, allozyme variation, seasonal variation, parthenogenesis, clonal selection, population structure.


1979 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Doll ◽  
A. H. D. Brown

The storage protein hordein contains two major groups of polypeptides which are highly polymorphic in barley, and in its evolutionary progenitor Hordeum spontaneum Koch. Crosses between the two species showed that the complex electrophoretic phenotypes within the two groups of polypeptides are governed by codominant alleles at two corresponding loci, Hor-1 and Hor-2, which are moderately linked (11% ± 2). In natural populations of the wild species, the two complex hordein loci were much more polymorphic than the allozyme loci. Furthermore, the variation at these two loci was highly correlated so that individuals differ from one another at both loci much more frequently than expected from the allele frequencies at the individual loci. Considerable hordein variation was also present in Composite Cross XXI, and there was evidence of reassortment of patterns by the seventeenth generation. Thus the complex hordein loci, with their extreme diversity and linkage disequilibrium, are ideal markers for monitoring evolutionary processes in both natural, or composite cross populations.


Genetics ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsuneyuki Yamazaki ◽  
Yasuko Hirose

ABSTRACT Fifty lethal-free, sterility-free isogenic lines of Drosophila melanogaster that were randomly sampled from a natural population were tested for net fitness and other components of fitness by competition with D. hydei. Larval viability and developmental time were also measured using the balanced marker method. Distribution patterns of these fitness components were similar, but correlation between the fitness components varied depending on the combinations used. The highest correlations were obtained between net fitness and productivity (rp = 0.6987, rg = 0.9269). The correlation between net fitness and total larval viability was much lower (rp = 0.1473 and rg = 0.2171). These results indicate that measuring net fitness, not just a component of fitness, is necessary for the good understanding of the genetic structures of natural populations.


1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Sanchez Prado ◽  
L Charles-Palabost ◽  
M Katz ◽  
A Merçot

1994 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul D. Sniegowski ◽  
Anne Pringle ◽  
Kimberly A. Hughes

SummaryWe have investigated the interchromosomal effect of the naturally-occurring paracentric inversions In(2L)t and In(3R)P on meiotic recombination in two regions of the X chromosome in Drosophila melanogaster. Previous authors have suggested that the rate of recombination at the tip of the X chromosome may be substantially higher in some natural populations than values measured in the laboratory, due to the interchromosomal effect of heterozygous autosomal inversions. This suggestion was motivated by observations that transposable elements are not as common at the tip of the X chromosome as predicted by recent research relating reduced meiotic exchange to increased element abundance in D. melanogaster. We examined the effects of heterozygous In(2L)t and In(3R)P on recombination at both the tip and base of the X chromosome on a background of isogenic major chromosomes from a natural population. Both inversions substantially increased the rate of recombination at the base; neither one affected recombination at the tip. The results suggest that the presence of inversions in the study population does not elevate rates of crossing over at the tip of the X chromosome. The relevance of these results to ideas relating transposable element abundance to recombination rates is discussed.


Genetics ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-129
Author(s):  
J N Macpherson ◽  
B S Weir ◽  
A J Leigh Brown

Abstract We have analyzed the level of gametic association between restriction map variants in a sample of 44 X chromosomes from a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster. Of 21 pairwise tests involving 7 restriction map polymorphisms in the yellow-achaete-scute complex, 17 were found to be significant, including some between restriction sites over 80 kb apart. Three-way linkage disequilibria and their variances were also estimated for all 35 three-way comparisons between these loci. Twelve such tests were found to be significant, again spanning distances of up to 80 kb on the restriction map. Only 9 of a possible 128 haplotypes were represented in the sample and 8 of these could be linked together by changes at a single site. The strength of these associations at y-ac-sc is unusual by comparison with studies on other regions of the genome of D. melanogaster, and is consistent with the very low level of recombination which has been reported for the complex. However, our estimate of nucleotide diversity in the region is not significantly different from those made for some other loci in this species.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document