Abstract
A Kamuela, Hawaii, population of Drosophila mercatorum was surveyed for enzyme variability. The mean heterozygosity and the proportion of polymorphic loci were estimated as 0.1255 and 0.37, respectively. Neither deviates more than one standard error from their respective means for 43 Drosophila species (Nevo 1978). Heterozygosity was distributed across enzyme categories in much the same manner as observed in other species (Gillespie and Kojima 1968; Johnson 1974), and enzymes associated with glycolysis were about as variable as other enzymes of central metabolism.——The levels of heterozygosity and polymorphism in this population do not seem to have been affected by a low-level capacity for parthenogenesis. The observed parthenogenetic reproduction is not strongly associated with particular allelic variants among viable parthenogenetic adults; however, the capacity to establish a self-sustaining parthenogenetic clone is strongly associated with the phenotype with the most frequent allele at every locus studied. We interpret these results to mean that isozyme variants do not strongly influence viability under total homozygosity (the genetic condition imposed by parthenogenesis), but they do have an impact upon the reproductive biology of parthenogenetic adults.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (988.6 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Johnson G. B. Enzyme polymorphism and metabolism. Science. 1974 Apr 5;184(4132):28–37. doi: 10.1126/science.184.4132.28. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kojima K., Gillespie J., Toari Y. N. A profile of Drosophila species' enzymes assayed by electrophoresis. I. Number of alleles, heterozygosities, and linkage disequilibrium in glucose-metabolizing systems and some other enzymes. Biochem Genet. 1970 Oct;4(5):627–637. doi: 10.1007/BF00486100. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Nevo E. Genetic variation in natural populations: patterns and theory. Theor Popul Biol. 1978 Feb;13(1):121–177. doi: 10.1016/0040-5809(78)90039-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Stalker H D. Parthenogenesis in Drosophila. Genetics. 1954 Jan;39(1):4–34. doi: 10.1093/genetics/39.1.4. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Steiner W. W., Sung K. C., Paik Y. K. Electrophoretic variability in island populations of Drosophila simulans and Drosophila immigrans. Biochem Genet. 1976 Jun;14(5-6):495–506. doi: 10.1007/BF00486129. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Templeton A. R., Carson H. L., Sing C. F. The population genetics of parthenogenetic strains of Drosophila mercatorium. II The capacity for parthenogenesis in a natural, bisexual population. Genetics. 1976 Mar 25;82(3):527–542. doi: 10.1093/genetics/82.3.527. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]