Genetic variation in pupation height in a population ofDrosophila simulans

✍ Scribed by P. Casares; M. C. Carracedo

• Book ID: 104630628
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 454 KB
• Volume: 70
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-6707
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00123210

✦ Synopsis

Preadult mortality of Drosophila simulans in the laboratory is influenced by larval behavior during pupation site choice. The possibility that larvae select a suitable place to pupate may have profound repercussions on their darwinian fitnesses. Twenty-three isofemale lines of a population of D. simulans were analyzed twice for pupation preference, the first time inmediately after being captured, and again after a year of laboratory culture. Pupation height per vial, pupation height on the vial walls, percentage of pupae either in food or on the wail, and egg-to-pupa viability were estimated. A great intrapopulational variation was noticed with an important genetic component for pupation site choice. This suggests a great larval adaptative potential in the population for selecting and using heterogeneous habitats. Time seems not to have modified the population in both the mean values and the phenotypic and genetic variances. Larval viability, however, increased with time. Pupation site choice is discussed on the basis of two independent sets of genes.