HETEROSIS AND ELIMINATION OF WEAK HOMOZYGOTES IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF THREE RELATED SPECIES OF Drosophila
- 15 February 1957
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 43 (2), 226-234
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.43.2.226
Abstract
Some of the natural populations of the sibling species D. tropicalis, D. paulistorum, and D. willistoni contain sig-nificantly more than 50% of individuals heterozygous for certain inversions. These populations sacrifice a part of the zygotes produced in each generation for the maintenance of the heterotic inversions. Nevertheless, these populations appear to be highly successful in competition with related species. In D. willistoni there is an incipient race occupying a fairly large territory in which about 60% of the individuals are heterozygotes for an inversion in the 3d chromosome. It is argued that some of the mutational "load" in natural populations of Drosophila, and possibly of other organisms, consists of heterotic genes and gene complexes.Keywords
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