Genetic differences between populations ofDrosophila melanogasterfor a quantitative trait: I. Laboratory populations

Abstract

SUMMARYAn experiment was carried out to test whether two laboratory cage populations ofDrosophila melanogasterfrom different origins (Kaduna and Pacific) differed in the genes for sternopleural bristle number. The means, variances and heritabilities of the two populations and the synthetic formed from crosses between them were very similar.Selection for low bristle number was practised in small replicate lines, six of each pure population and nine of the synthetic. On average, Pacific responded to selection rather more rapidly than either Kaduna or the synthetic, but there was little difference in the limit achieved.Crosses between replicates within populations were made and selection continued, and these lines subsequently crossed between populations and reselected. Additional response was obtained by this procedure but the crosses between the replicates of the pure and synthetic populations attained similar selection limits.An analysis of effects of individual chromosomes from the selected lines on bristle number indicated that the contribution of each chromosome to total response was about the same in Pacific, Kaduna and the synthetic.It is concluded that differences in gene frequency, rather than the presence or absence of particular alleles, are mainly responsible for the differences observed between the populations.