AN INVESTIGATION OF GENOTYPE × ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION IN RELATION TO A SELECTION EXPERIMENT IN TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM

Abstract

An experiment involving the selection of certain lines of Tribolium castaneum for larva weight and others for offspring number in both wet and dry environments was carried out over nine generations. No apparent interactions of environment-selected-in × environment-tested-in was found. That is, the environment-selected-in did not condition response to selection for larva weight, although some slight tendency toward this type of effect was noted for offspring number. However, lines selected for high larva weight showed greater response over controls when tested in the wet as opposed to the dry environment.Crosses of the respective lines indicated that the hatchability of lines selected for larva weight was elevated when they were shifted from the dry to the wet environment. However, the reverse trend was apparent for the control lines. A cross of lines selected for offspring number in wet and dry environments respectively showed repeated superiority in hatchability over other lines and crosses to which it was compared.