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Population genetics of the Y chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster: rDNA variation and phenotypic correlates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

Andrew G. Clark ,
Frances M. Szumski  and
Eva M. S. Lyckegaard
Andrew G. Clark*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology and Genetics Program, Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics, 208 Mueller Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Frances M. Szumski
Affiliation:
Department of Biology and Genetics Program, Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics, 208 Mueller Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Eva M. S. Lyckegaard
Affiliation:
Department of Biology and Genetics Program, Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics, 208 Mueller Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
*
† Corresponding author.
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Summary

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One means of examining the evolutionary significance of molecular variation on the Y chromosome is to identify phenotypes specifically affected by Y-linked genes, and to quantify the phenotypic variation and its correlation to the molecular variation. The functional importance of the Y-linked array of rRNA genes is demonstrated by the ability of Y chromosome to rescue X-linked bobbed lethal alleles, whose lethality is seen in homozygous females. Because low numbers of X-linked rDNA gene copies result in increased developmental time and shortened bristles, and because there is considerable natural variation in Y-linked copy number, a careful examination of Y-linked variation in these two traits may uncover a mode of selection acting on the multigene family. In this study, 36 Y-chromosome replacement lines were tested to detect subtle variation in bristle phenotypes and developmental rates. Correlations among these traits, rDNA gene copy number, and intergenic sequence length were quantified. The absence of significant correlations between phenotypic characters and rDNA copy number or intergenic sequence length suggests that the extant molecular variation in Y-linked rDNA can have at most very small selective effects.

Type
Research Article
Information
Genetics Research , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , August 1991 , pp. 7 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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