scholarly journals ESTIMATION OF FITNESS COMPONENTS IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER. I. HETEROZYGOTE VIABILITY INDICES

Genetics ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-148
Author(s):  
Alan J Katz ◽  
Ricardo A Cardellino

ABSTRACT We examine the assumption of "dominance" with regard to viability of the Cy and Pm marker chromosomes in D. melanogaster. This assumption is often invoked for the extraction of wild-type second chromosomes from natural populations and for the calculation of relative viability indices. Significant genotypic variances for viability are found among both C y / f i and P m / f i heterozygotes in California and Japanese populations. The magnitude of the Pm/+i genotypic variance is substantially less than that of the Cy/+j heterozygotes (less than one half). Significant reciprocal effects are also found to influence Cy/+j, Pm/+i and + J f j viabilities. We conclude that viability indices of heterozygotes based on the Curly method are biased. We suggest that viability indices in the future be expressed relative to the viability of the Cy/Pm genotype (Curly-Plum method) or possibly that of the Pm/+i genotype (Plum method).

Genetics ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-368
Author(s):  
Alan J Katz

ABSTRACT Results are presented of further analyses of the significant effects of reciprocal crosses reported by KATZ and CARDELLINO(1978) in regard to viability indices of wild-type second chromosome heterozygotes. The observed differences between reciprocal crosses can be explained by the existence of reduced transmission frequencies of the wild-type homologue from Pm/+ and Cy/+ paternal parents. Mean estimates of transmission frequencies from Pm/+ and cy/+ males in California and Japan populations are significantly less than the Mendelian expectation of 1/2. The transmission frequencies of +i chromosomes from Pm/+i and Cy/+i males are also found to be positively correlated in the California and pooled populations, suggesting that the degree of distortion is primarily due to the +i chromosome rather than to Cy or Pm. A sufficient estimator of relative viability that is independent of distorted transmission frequencies is derived for use in the Cy/Pm technique of viability estimation.


1986 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trudy F. C. Mackay

SummaryForty-one third chromosomes extracted from a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster were assessed for net fitness and for the quantitative characters viability, net fertility, female productivity, male weight, abdominal bristle number, and sternopleural bristle number. Net homozygous and heterozygous fitness of the third chromosomes was estimated by competition against a marked balancer third chromosome. Average fitness of the homozygous lines relative to wild-type heterozygotes was 0·13, indicating substantial inbreeding depression for net fitness. All significant correlations of quantitative characters with fitness and with each other were high and positive. Homozygous fitness is strongly correlated with net fertility, viability, and female productivity, moderately associated with male weight, and not significantly associated with bristle traits. The combination of metric traits which best predicts homozygous fitness is the simple multiple of viability and female productivity. Heterozygous fitness is not correlated with homozygous fitness; furthermore, the relative contribution of metric traits to fitness in a heterozygous population is likely to be different from that deduced from homozygous lines. These observations are consistent with a model of genetic variation for fitness in natural populations caused by segregation of rare deleterious recessive alleles.


1999 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. ROBBINS ◽  
R. AGGARWAL ◽  
R. NICHOLS ◽  
G. GIBSON

Heart rate in pre-pupae of Drosophila melanogaster is shown to vary over a wide range from 2·5 to 3·7 beats per second. Quantitative genetic analysis of a sample of 11 highly inbred lines indicates that approaching one-quarter of the total variance in natural populations can be attributed to genetic differences between flies. A hypomorphic allele of the potassium channel gene ether-a-gogo, which is homologous to a human long-QT syndrome susceptibility gene (HERG), has a heart rate at the low end of the wild-type range, but this effect can be suppressed in certain wild-type genetic backgrounds. This study provides a baseline for investigation of pharmacological and other physiological influences on heart rate in the model organism, and implies that quantitative genetic dissection will provide insight into the molecular basis for variation in normal and arrhythmic heart function.


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.


Genetics ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-300
Author(s):  
Terumi Mukai ◽  
Sadao I Chigusa ◽  
Shin-Ichi Kusakabe

ABSTRACT Developmental homeostasis of relative viability was examined for homozygotes and heterozygotes using second chromosomes from two populations of Drosophila melanogaster. One was a chromosome population in which spontaneous mutations were allowed to accumulate since it was begun with a single near-normal second chromosome. The second was a natural population approximately at equilibrium. For the estimation of relative viability, the Cy method was employed (Wallace 1956), and environmental variance between simultaneously replicated cultures was used as the index of developmental homeostasis. A new method was used in the estimation of sampling variance for relative viability that was employed for the calculation of environmental variance (error variance between simultaneously replicated cultures — sampling variance). The following findings were obtained.: (1) The difference in environmental variance between homozygotes and heterozygotes could not be seen when a chromosome population with variation due to new mutations was tested. (2) When a chromosome group isolated from an approximate equilibrium population was examined, heterozygotes manifested a smaller environmental variance than the homozygotes if their relative viabilities were approximately the same. (3) There was a slight negative correlation between viability and environmental variance, although opposite results were found when the viabilities of individuals were high, especially when overdominance (coupling overdominance, Mukai 1969 a, b) was manifest. On the basis of these findings, it was concluded that developmental homeostasis was a product of natural selection, and its mechanism was discussed.


1974 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 864-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. O'Brien ◽  
Yoshio Shimada

"Null" mutations previously isolated at the αGpdh-1 locus of Drosophila melanogaster, because of disruption of the energy-producing α-glycerophosphate cycle, severely restrict the flight ability and relative viability of affected individuals. Two "null" alleles, αGpdh-1BO-1-4, and αGpdh-1BO-1-5, when made hemizygous with a deficiency of the αGpdh-1 locus, Df(2L)GdhA, were rendered homozygous by recombination with and selective elimination of the Df(2L)GdhA chromosome. After over 25 generations, a homozygous αGpdh-1BO-1-4 stock regained the ability to fly despite the continued absence of measurable αGPDH activity. Inter se heterozygotes of three noncomplementing αGpdh-1 "null" alleles and the "adapted" αGpdh-1BO-1-4 homozygotes were examined for metabolic enzymatic activities related to the energy-producing and pyridine nucleotide-regulating functions of the α-glycerophosphate cycle in Drosophila. The enzyme functions tested included glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, cytoplasmic and soluble malate dehydrogenase, lactate dehydrogenase, mitochondrial NADH oxidation, oxidative phosphorylation, and respiratory control with the substrates α-glycerophosphate, succinate, and pyruvate. These activities in any of the mutant genotypes in early adult life were indistinguishable from those in the wild type. There was, however, a premature deterioration and atrophy of the ultrastructural integrity of flight muscle sarcosomes observed by electron microscopy in the "null" mutants. These observations were correlated with a decrease in state 3 mitochondrial oxidation with α-glycerophosphate, succinate, and pyruvate, as well as with loss of respiratory control in adults as early as 2 wk after eclosion. Such observations, which normally are seen in aged dipterans, were accompanied by premature mortality of the mutant heterozygotes. The adapted αGpdh-1BO-1-4 was identical with wild type in each of the aging characters with the single exception of lowered rates of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation.


Genetics ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 827-849
Author(s):  
C Clark Cockerham ◽  
Terumi Mukai

ABSTRACT Viability relative to Cy/Pm as a standard was studied in Drosophila melanogaster. One experiment, E1, consisted of progeny from eleven distinct 7 x 7 factorial mating designs with reciprocals for second chromosomes extracted from a natural population. The other experiment, E2, consisted of two distinct sets of heterozygotes with reciprocals and corresponding homozygotes. It was established from E1 that there are little to no synergistic effects among different genotypes in a vial and that Cy and Pm heterozygotes vary almost as much as would be expected if one chromosome were held constant for wild-type heterozygotes. In wild-type heterozygotes, variances were estimated to be 0.0099 for average chromosomal effects, 0.0054 for interactions of chromosomes, 0.0021 for maternal effects, 0.0079 for paternal effects, and -0.0010 for the remaining interaction effects, all being significantly different from zero except the last. The variances of Cy and Pm heterozygotes, covariance of Cy and Pm heterozygotes, and covariances of Cy and Pm heterozygotes with wild-type heterozygotes, as well as the comparable statistics available in E2, all showed a large paternal component of variance and a smaller maternal component of variance, both unexpected results.—From E2 the variance of homozygotes, excluding error variance, was estimated to be 0.0149, and the covariances of homozygotes with wild-type heterozygotes to be 0.0056 for maternally derived chromosomes common and 0.0126 for paternally derived chromosomes common, again showing the larger paternal than maternal influence. The average genetic regression of heterozygotes on homozygotes of 0.61 was reduced only slightly to 0.56 by correcting for maternal and paternal variances. These genetic regressions, generally utilized as estimators of the average degree of dominance, are larger than any previously reported.—Differential meiotic drive in Cy and Pm parents was shown to be compatible with the large paternal and maternal variances, but other causes cannot be ruled out.—Approximations were developed for translating various variances, covariances, and regressions between single- and double-marker experiments, assuming that marker chromosomes behave as typical wild-type chromosomes in one case and assuming a (partially) recessive model with the population in mutation selection balance in another case. Various features, particularly the estimation of dominance, were compared and discussed between the two cases.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enoch Ng’oma ◽  
Wilton Fidelis ◽  
Kevin M. Middleton ◽  
Elizabeth G. King

AbstractThe nutritional conditions experienced by a population play a major role in shaping trait evolution in many taxa. Constraints exerted by nutrient limitation or nutrient imbalance can influence the maximal value that fitness components such as reproduction and lifespan attains, and organisms may shift how resources are allocated to different structures and functions in response to changes in nutrition. Whether the phenotypic changes associated with changes in nutrition represent an adaptive response is largely unknown. Further, it is unclear whether the response of fitness components to diet even has the potential to evolve in most systems. In this study, we use an admixed multiparental population of Drosophila melanogaster reared in three different diet conditions to estimate quantitative genetic parameters for lifespan and fecundity. We find significant genetic variation for both traits in our population and show that lifespan has moderate to high heritabilities within diets. Genetic correlations for lifespan between diets were significantly less than one, demonstrating a strong genotype by diet interaction. These findings demonstrate substantial standing genetic variation in our population that is comparable to natural populations and highlights the potential for adaptation to changing nutritional environments.


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