Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:20:21.640Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the distribution of recessive embryonic lethals in a natural population of Coelopa frigida (Fab.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

B. Burnet
B. Burnet
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, King's College, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

An account is given of the habitat and ecology of a wrackbed population of Coelopa frigida (Fab.). The spatial distribution of the third-instar larvae was found to be patchy. This is due to a preference of adult flies for oviposition sites in zones of high temperature within the wrackbed. The relationship between larval density and temperature was found to account only in part for the patchy distribution, a second factor being the formation of family aggregates within each temperature zone. The effect of this type of spatial distribution on the interpretation of genetic sampling methods for the population is discussed.

Samples of third-instar larvae from the wrackbed population have been analysed for the presence of recessive embryonic lethals in three consecutive years from 1957 to 1959. From a total of 528 gametes tested, 44 recessive embryonic lethals were isolated. Cross tests for allelism showed that certain lethals were repeated within samples taken in the same year.

The gross frequency of embryonic lethals is shown to be independent of seasonal changes in population density. Estimates of gene frequency are made for certain individual lethals and these are shown to be greater than expected on the basis of the census size of the population. Possible causes of this discrepancy are examined.

Type
Research Article
Information
Genetics Research , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , July 1961 , pp. 249 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1961

References

REFERENCES

Allison, A. C. (1954). Protection afforded by sickle-cell trait against subtertian malarial infection. Brit. med. J. 1, 290–294CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anscombe, F. J. (1948). The transformation of Poisson, Binomial and Negative Binomial data. Biometrica, 35, 246–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Backlund, H. O. (1945). The wrack fauna of Sweden and Finland. Opusc. ent., Suppl. V.Google Scholar
Black, W. A. P. (1948). The seasonal variation in chemical composition of some sub-littoral seaweeds common to Scotland. J. Soc. chem. Ind., Lond., 69, 165–168, 172–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnet, B. (1960). The European species of the genus Coelopa (Dipt., Coelopidae). Ent. mon. Mag. 96, 8–13.Google Scholar
Burnet, B. (1960). The larvae of Coelopa frigida (F.) and Coelopa pilipes (Hal.). Ent. mon. Mag. 96, 178–180.Google Scholar
Burnet, B. & Thompson, U. (1960). Laboratory culture of Coelopa frigida (Fabricius) (Diptera: Coelopidae). Proc. R. ent. Soc. Lond. A, 35, 85–89.Google Scholar
Crow, J. F. (1954). Breeding structure of populations. II: Effective population number. In Statistics and Mathematics in Biology, ed. Kempthorn, et al. Iowa, S.P.Google Scholar
Crow, J. F. & Morton, N. E. (1954). Measurement of gene frequency drift in small populations. Evolution, 9, 202–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobzhansky, Th. (1953). Genetics and the Origin of Species. Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Dobzhansky, Th., Pavlovsky, O., Spassky, D. & Spassky, N. (1955). Genetics of natural populations. XXIII: Biological role of deleterious recessives in populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics, 40, 781–796.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dobzhansky, Th. & Wright, S. (1941). Genetics of natural populations. V: Relations between mutation rate and accumulation of lethals in populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics, 26, 23–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dubinin, N. P. (1946). On lethal mutations in natural populations. Genetics, 31, 21–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunn, L. C. & Suckling, J. (1956). Studies of genetic variability in populations of wild house mice. I: Analysis of seven alleles at locus T. Genetics, 41, 344–352.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Egglishaw, H. J. (1960). Studies on the family Coelopidae (Diptera). Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond. 112, 109–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, D. A. (1953). Experimental evidence concerning contagious distributions in ecology. Biometrica, 40, 186–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldschmidt, E., Wahrman, J., Lederman-Klein, A. & Weiss, R. (1955). A two years’ survey of population dynamics in Drosophila melanogaster. Evolution, 9, 353–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hadorn, E. (1951). Developmental action of lethal factors in Drosophila. Advanc. Genet. 4, 53–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hiraizumi, Y. & Crow, J. F. (1960). Heterozygous effects on viability, fertility, rate of development, and longevity of Drosophila chromosomes that are lethal when homozygous. Genetics, 45, 1071–1083.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ives, P. T. (1945). Genetic structure of American populations of Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics, 30, 167–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewontin, R. C. & Dunn, L. C. (1960). The evolutionary dynamics of a polymorphism in the house mouse. Genetics, 45, 705–722.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacLeod, J. & Donnelly, J. (1947). Individual and group marking methods for fly-population studies. Bull. ent. Res. 48, 485–92.Google Scholar
Paik, Y. K. (1960). Genetic variability in Korean populations of Drosophila melanogaster. Evolution, 14, 293–303CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavan, C., Cordiero, A. R., Dobzhansky, N., Dobzhansky, Th., Malagolowkin, C., Spassky, B. & Wedel, M. (1951). Concealed genic variability in Brazilian populations of Drosophila willistoni. Genetics, 36, 13–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Penrose, L. S. (1956). The spontaneous mutation rate in Man. Brit. Med. Res. Coun. Rep., H.M.S.O., Cmd. 9780, pp. 90–92.Google Scholar
Quenouille, M. H. (1950). Introductory Statistics. London: Butterworth-Springer, Ltd.Google Scholar
Spencer, W. (1947). Mutations in wild populations of Drosophila. Advanc. Genet. 1, 359–401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stadler, L. J. (1942). Some observations on gene variability and spontaneous mutation. Spragg Mem. Lectures, 3, 3–15.Google Scholar
Stern, C., Carson, G., Kinst, M., Novitski, E. & Uphoff, D. (1952). The viability of heterozygotes for lethals. Genetics, 37, 413–449.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sutcliffe, D. W. (1960). Osmotic regulation in the larvae of some euryhaline Dipera. Nature, Lond., 187, 331–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terumi, M. & Burdick, A. B. (1959). Single gene heterosis associated with a second chromosome recessive lethal in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics, 44, 211–232.Google Scholar
Wallace, B. (1950). Autosomal lethals in experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster. Evolution, 4, 172–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, S. (1937). The distribution of gene frequencies in populations. Proc. not. Acad. Sci., Wash., 23, 307–320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wright, S. (1939). Statistical genetics in relation to evolution. Actualités scientifiques et industrielles, No. 802. Paris: Hermann et Cie.Google Scholar
Wright, S. (1948). On the role of directed and random changes in gene frequency in the genetics of populations. Evolution, 1–2, 279–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, S., Dobzhansky, Th. & Hovanitz, W. (1942). Genetics of natural populations. VII: The allelism of lethals in the third chromosome of Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics, 27, 363–394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ulyett, G. C. (1949). On competition for food and allied phenomena in sheep blowfly populations. Phil. Trans. B, 234, 77–173.Google Scholar