Heritability of wing morphology in a natural population of Drosophila gouveai.
The natural and laboratory heritabilities of a series of parameters related to wing size and shape were estimated in a population of Drosophila gouveai (repleta group) under field and laboratory conditions. A morphometric analysis was done using 17 wing parameters related to wing landmark positions obtained using the method of the best adjustment of an ellipse to the wing edge. Three parameters (thetaA, thetaC and thetaD) showed highly significant heritability in the wild (average 0.61), whereas only wing size (W(SI)) had significant heritability in the laboratory (0.71). The additive genetic variance of most parameters was greater in the wild than in the laboratory. These results showed that some parameters possessed a substantial genetic additive component in their phenotypic variance, and that morphometric parameters of D. gouveai wings are appropriate quantitative markers for assessing morphological differentiation among populations.
Departamento de Genética, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Av Bandeirantes 3900, CEP 14049-900, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. emarsola@rge.fmrp.usp.br
Evandro
E
Marsola Moraes
Fabio
F
Melo Sene
D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D010641:Phenotype; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable; D014921:Wings, Animal
D015415:Biomarkers