Abstract
IT was shown several decades ago that the reduction in genetic heterozygosity produced by inbreeding in domesticated plants and animals is accompanied by an increase in morphological variability1,2. While studies of laboratory populations and results of plant and animal breeding have been instrumental in identifying the relationship between genetic heterozygosity and morphological variability, such investigations often involved substantial changes in genetic heterozygosity, such as are produced when entire chromosomes are made homozygous. For this reason their relevance to the levels of heterozygosity in natural populations is unclear. Until recently attempts to examine this relationship in natural populations were hindered by the inability to routinely estimate levels of genetic heterozygosity in nature. However, determinations of genetic heterozygosity at specific enzyme-loci can now be made by electrophoresis. Recently Mitton3 found that heterozygotes for a set of five enzyme-loci had reduced multivariate variances for a set of morphological characters when compared to homozygotes at the same loci in populations of the killifish, Fundulus heteroclitus. It is very important to determine the generality of this observation for other species populations. I have now examined the relationship between genetic heterozygosity, as identified by electrophoresis, and the variance of morphological characters in the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus. Study of six polymorphic enzyme-loci in the monarch shows that once again heterozygotes have smaller variances for morphological characters when compared to homozygotes at the same locus.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Lerner, I. M. Genetic Homeostasis (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1954).
Gowen, J. W. Heterosis (Iowa State College Press, Ames, 1952).
Mitton, J. B. Nature 273, 661–662 (1978).
Eanes, W. F. & Koehn, R. K. Evolution (in the press).
Bernstein, S. C., Throckmorton, L. H. & Hubby, J. L. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 70, 3928–3931 (1973).
Singh, R. S., Lewontin, R. C. & Felton, A. A. Genetics 84, 609–629 (1976).
Coyne, J. A. Genetics 84, 593–607 (1976).
Coyne, J. A. & Felton, A. A. Genetics 87, 285–304 (1977).
Sokal, R. R. & Rohlf, F. J. Biometry (Freeman, San Francisco, 1969).
Haldane, J. B. S. Proc. R. Soc. B 144, 217–220 (1955).
Lewis, D. Proc. R. Soc. B 144, 178–185 (1955).
Robertson, F. W. & Reeve, E. C. R. Nature 170, 286–287 (1952).
Lewontin, R. C. The Genetical Basis of Evolutionary Change (Columbia University Press, New York, 1974).
Ayala, F. J. Molecular Evolution (Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts, 1976).
Prakash, S. & Lewontin, R. C. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 59, 398–450 (1968).
Prakash, S. & Lewontin, R. C. Genetics 60, 405–408 (1971).
Prakash, S. & Merritt, R. B. Genetics 72, 169–175 (1972).
Prakash, S. Genetics 77, 795–804 (1974).
Policansky, D. & Zouros, E. Genetics 85, 507–511 (1977).
Robertson, A. J. Genet. 54, 236–248 (1956).
Lewontin, R. C. Genetics 50, 757–782 (1964).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
EANES, W. Morphological variance and enzyme heterozygpsity in the monarch butterfly. Nature 276, 263–264 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/276263a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/276263a0
This article is cited by
-
Inheritance of Behavioral and Neuroanatomical Phenotypical Variance: Hybrid Mice Are Not Always More Stable Than Inbreds
Behavior Genetics (2006)
-
Correlations between fitness and heterozygosity at allozyme and microsatellite loci in the Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L.
Heredity (2004)
-
Increase in developmental instability upon inbreeding in Daphnia
Heredity (1997)
-
Heterozygosity at the malate dehydrogenase locus and developmental homeostasis in Apis mellifera
Heredity (1996)
-
Lack of correlation between heterozygosity and fitness in forked fungus beetles
Heredity (1993)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.