Pigmentation in Drosophila melanogaster and the Genetic Correlation to Fitness Traits.
Authors: Patricka Williams-Simon 1; Hayes Oken 1; Xinwen Zhang 2; Kelsey Sinclair 2; Carter Johnson 2; Conner Traugot 2; Lauren McIntyre 2; Paul Schmidt 1
Affiliations: 1) University of Pennsylvania; 2) University of Florida
Keywords: Genetic interactions
Drosophila pigmentation is a complex trait that is thought to be linked to fitness. In D. melanogaster there are well documented altitudinal and latitudinal clines, implicating pigmentation phenotype in spatially varying selection in natural populations. In addition, pigmentation is a complex, polygenic trait with several genes of major effect that are highly pleiotropic. This suggests that variance in pigmentation phenotype may covary with a number of other fitness-associated traits. Quantitative genetic methods can be used to test the hypotheses of genetic correlations between abdominal melanization and other fitness traits, which are surprisingly not well characterized in this system. Here, we used a North Carolina Design II with parents from populations of D. melanogaster derived from a) 150 generations of artificial selection on extreme phenotypes, b) the latitudinal range in the eastern USA (Maine and Florida), and c) spring and fall seasonal inbreds developed from a Pennsylvania orchard population. Parents were selected based on variation in pigmentation phenotype and F1 crosses were measured for pigmentation and fitness related traits. We estimated heritability of individual traits and genetic correlations between pigmentation and fitness associated traits. Future studies will aim to perform direct tests of the adaptive significance of variation in pigmentation phenotype using field based experiments.