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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1974 May;71(5):1974–1976. doi: 10.1073/pnas.71.5.1974

Behavior in Different Environments of Populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura Selected for Phototaxis and Geotaxis

Theodosius Dobzhansky 1,2, Charles L Judson 1,2, Olga Pavlovsky 1,2
PMCID: PMC388366  PMID: 4525308

Abstract

When tested in Hirsch-Hadler mazes, Drosophila pseudoobscura descended from natural populations is phototactically and geotactically neutral on the average. Decidedly positive and negative populations have been obtained by artificial selection. The behavior is independent of temperature (15-27°) and age (2-17 days). The flies perceive light as weak as 0.2 lux; from 7 to 3000 lux the behavior difference between positive and negative strains increases little, and perhaps decreases at 8000 lux. A remarkable transformation occurs with red light; the population that is negatively phototactic with shorter wave lengths or with white light becomes photopositive.

Keywords: genetic selection, light color and intensity

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1974

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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