Quantitative genetic study on sexual difference in emigration behavior of Drosophila melanogaster in a natural population.

Abstract

A quantitative genetic analysis was conducted on emigration response behavior using 140 second chromosome lines of Drosophila melanogaster. Fourteen sets of 5 x 5 partial diallel cross experiments were made in the parental generation. The emigration activity per batch of 50 male and 50 female F1 progeny was scored with Sakai's population system. Sexual difference did not appear in the emigration activity in these experiments. A significant genotype x sex x set interaction was detected. The genetic variance components of emigration activity differed between sexes: In males, additive genetic variance of emigration activity was 0.0497 +/- 0.0092 and dominance variance, 0.0018 +/- 0.0046; in females, additive, 0.0373 +/- 0.0076 and dominance, 0.0169 +/- 0.0044. Additive genetic correlation between sexes for the emigration activity was 0.685 +/- 0.150, deviating significantly from unity. These results suggested that the genes affecting emigration activity would operate differently between sexes of D. melanogaster in natural populations.

Use of Spatial Information and Search Strategies in a Water Maze Analog in Drosophila melanogaster

“…This finding is generally related to the particular sexual selection pressures and range size of focus species [13], [53], [54]. In Drosophila melanogaster , some authors have argued a sex-biased dispersal in favor of females from natural populations [55], [56] (but see [57]), that would comply with our observations of better female spatial learning. An alternative hypothesis is that Drosophila males and females could differ in their visual acuity, e.g.…”

Prior Mating Experience Modulates the Dispersal of Drosophila in Males More Than in Females

“…Whereas we have yet to determine the specific components of a resource that inhibit the dispersal of males, our observation that males dispersed from food at a lower rate than females is consistent with previous findings for natural isolates tested at the optimum temperature for these flies (Iliadi et al. 2002; Mikasa and Narise 1980) (however, see Mckenzie 1974; Mikasa 1992). …”

Intraspecific variation in the effects of mating on emigration activity and fecundity in a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster.

“…Because molecules such as sex-peptides and others which are transmitted from male to female during copulation influence oviposition and remating of mated females (Chen and Bühler, 1970;Aigaki et al, 1991;Fuyama and Ueyama, 1997;Wolfner, 1997), I speculate that these molecules may mediate the decrease of emigration activity in mated females. Although it was suggested that the emigration activities of the sexes were under different genetic control (Mikasa, 1992), the factors derived from males from copulation may not be ignored with respect to the variability of emigration activity in the mated females. In this study, the females of every isofemale line in the mated group were mated with males of their own line to compare previous experimental results.…”

“…The percentages of genetic variance in emigration activity to the total variance were estimated in the female flies to be 33.0% (Mikasa, 1992) and 49.8% (calculated from the data of Mikasa and Narise [1986]). Those values and the values in the present study (27.4 and 53.0%) seemed to be within the same range, although different experimental conditions and different natural populations were used and the experimental data were too small for comparison.…”

“…As the use of isofemale lines is a somewhat simpler approach for the assessment of the nature and range of phenotypic variation in natural populations (Parsons, 1980), 28 isofemale lines derived from the Himeji population were used. Additionally, to enable the comparison of results of previ-ous studies on the variability of emigration activity in a natural population (Mikasa and Narise, 1986;Mikasa, 1992), females were mated with males of the same isofemale line. I will also report the results of examinations on the number of eggs oviposited by mated and unmated females.…”