Summary
An estimate is presented of the effective size of a natural, Greek population of Drosophila subobscura, based on data on lethal allelism. It is compared with further estimates for the same population obtained from newly-reported data by the “temporal” and the “ecological” methods. The lethal allelism and ecological estimates both suggest that the population is extremely large and effectively infinite. The conclusions from the temporal method conform to this, with the exception of data from two loci: Est-5 and Aph. Directional selection at these loci is therefore suggested. Each method is described and explained, and their validity discussed. The results are compared with the few previous estimates of effective population size.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Begon, M. 1976a. Dispersal, density and microdistribution in Drosophila subobscura Collin. J Anim Ecol, 45, 441–456.
Begon, M. 1976b. Temporal variations in the reproductive condition of Drosophila obscura Fallén and d. subobscura Collin. Oecologia (Berl), 23, 31–47.
Begon, M. 1977. The effective size of a natural Drosophila subobscura population. Heredity 38, 13–18.
Begon, M. 1979. Investigating Animal Abundance; Capture-Recapture for Biologists. Edward Arnold, London.
Burla, H, and Greuter, M. 1959. Einige Komponenten des Ausbreitungsvorgangs bei Drosophila. Vjschr naturforsch Ges Zürich, 104, 236–245.
Crow, J F, and Kimura, M. 1970. An Introduction to Population Genetics Theory. Harper and Row, New York.
Crow, J F, and Morton, N E. 1955. Measurements of gene frequency drift in small populations. Evolution, 9, 202–214.
Crumpacker, D W, and Williams, J S. 1973. Density, dispersion and population structure in Drosophila pseudoobscura. Ecol Monog 43, 499–538.
Dobzhansky, Th, and Wright, S. 1941. Genetics of natural populations. V. Relations between mutation rate and accumulation of lethals in populations of D. pseudoobscura. Genetics, 26, 23–51.
Dobzhansky, Th, and Wright, S. 1943. Genetics of natural populations. X. Dispersion rates in Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics, 28, 304–340.
Falconer, D S. 1970. Introduction to Quantitative Genetics. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh.
Greenwood, J J D. 1975. Effective population numbers in the snail Cepaea nemoralis. Evolution, 28, 513–526.
Greuter, M W. 1963. Vergleich der Ausbreitungsaktivitaten von Drosophila subobscura und Drosophila obscura. Revue Suisse Zool, 70, 759–856.
Inglesfield, C. 1979. Migration and microdistribution in Drosophila subobscura Collin. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Liverpool.
Jones, J S, and Parkin, D T. 1977. Attempts to measure natural selection by altering gene frequencies in natural populations. In Measuring Selection in Natural Populations, ed. F. B. Christiansen and T. M. Fenchel, pp. 83–96. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Kerster, H W. 1964. Neighbourhood size in the rusty lizard, Sceloporus olivaceus. Evolution 18, 445–457.
Kerster, H W, and Levin, D A. 1968. Neighbourhood size in Lithospermum carolinense. Genetics, 60, 577–587.
Krimbas, C B, and Loukas, M. 1980. The inversion polymorphism of Drosophila subobscura. Evol Biol 12, (in press).
Krimbas, C B, and Tsakas, S. 1971. The genetics of Dacus oleae. V. Changes of esterase polymorphism in a natural population following insecticide control—selection or drift? Evolution, 25, 454–460.
Lande, R. 1979. Effective deme sizes during long-term evolution estimated from rates of chromosomal rearrangement. Evolution, 33, 234–251.
Levin, D A, and Kerster, H W. 1968. Local gene dispersal in Phlox. Evolution, 22, 130–139.
Lewontin, R C. 1974. The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change. Columbia University Press, New York.
Lewontin, R C, and Krakauer, J. 1973. Distribution of gene frequency as a test of the theory of selective neutrality of polymorphism. Genetics, 74, 175–195.
Loukas, M, and Krimbas, C B. 1979. The genetics of Drosophila subobscura populations. X. A study of dispersal. Genetica, 50, 127–134.
Loukas, M, and Krimbas, C B. 1980. Isozyme techniques in Drosophila subobscura. Dros Inf Sen (in press).
Loukas, M, Krimbas, C B, Mavragani-Tsipidou, P, and Kastritis, C D. 1979. The genetics of Drosophila subobscura populations. VIII. Allozyme loci and their chromosome maps. J Heredity, 70, 17–26.
Loukas, M, Krimbas, C B, and Sourdis, J. 1980. The genetics of Drosophila subobscura populations. XIII. A study of lethal allelism. Genetica (in press).
Loukas, M, Krimbas, C B, and Vergini, Y. 1979. The genetics of Drosophila subobscura populations. IX. Studies on linkage disequilibrium in four natural populations. Genetics, 93, 497–523.
Merrell, D J. 1968. A comparison of the estimated size and the “effective size” of breeding populations of the leopard frog, Rana pipiens. Evolution, 22, 274–283.
Prout, T. 1954. Genetic drift in irradiated experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics, 39, 529–545.
Tinkle, D W. 1965. Population structure and effective size of a lizard population. Evolution 19, 569–573.
Wahlund, S. 1928. Zusammensetzung von populationen und Korrelationser-scheinungen von Standpunkt der Verebungslehre aus betrachted Hereditas, 11, 65–106.
Wilson, E O. 1975. Sociobiology, The New Synthesis. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Wright, S. 1931. Evolution in Mendelian populations. Genetics, 16, 91–159.
Wright, S. 1938. Size of population and breeding structure in relation to evolution. Science, 57, 430–431.
Wright, S. 1943. Isolation by distance. Genetics, 28, 114–138.
Wright, S. 1969. Evolution and the Genetics of Populations Volume II The Theory of Gene Frequencies. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Wright, S, Dobzhansky, Th, and Hovanitz, W. 1942. Genetics of natural populations. VII. The allelism of lethals in the third chromosome of Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics 27, 363–394.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Begon, M., Krimbas, C. & Loukas, M. The genetics of Drosophila subobscura populations. Heredity 45, 335–350 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1980.76
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1980.76
This article is cited by
-
Effective population size and evolutionary dynamics in outbred laboratory populations of Drosophila
Journal of Genetics (2013)
-
Monitoring of the genetic structure of natural populations: change of the effective population size and inversion polymorphism in Drosophila subobscura
Genetica (2008)
-
Genetic neighbourhood and effective population size in the endangered European mink Mustela lutreola
Biodiversity and Conservation (2005)
-
Developments in the prediction of effective population size
Heredity (1994)
-
Capacity of dispersal of a colonizing species: Drosophila subobscura
Genetica (1987)