ABSTRACT
The dynamic behavior of four-locus gametic frequency distributions was studied in five replicate cage populations of Drosophila melanogaster for up to 50 generations. The joint frequency distributions were resolved into gene freqcencies and various disequilibrium measures. In addition, F statistics for marginal single-locus genotypic frequency distributions were followed through time. The gene frequency, disequilibrium and F statistics were obtained for four chromosome 3 enzyme marker loci [isocitrate dehydrogenase (3-27.1), esterase4 (3-36.8). phosphoglucomutase (343.4) and esterase-c (3-49.0)]. The initial structure of the experimental populations featured random mating proportions, and two complementary gametic types with respect to the marker loci, thus assuring complete pairwise linkage disequilibrium among the markers.—The experimental results indicate: (1) the between-replicate variance in gene frequency varied substantially among loci, with isocitrate dehydrogenase showing the greatest between-replicate variance, and esterase-C the least. (2) The F statistics initially were strongly negative but decayed to the neighborhood ofzero for all marker lociexcept esterase-C. The rate at which the F statistics approached zero varied among the marker loci, indicating substantial differences in the distribution of selective effects along the chromosome. The centromeric region, marked by esterase-C, shows the strongest selective effects. (3)The rate of decay 3flinkage disequilibrium was much faster than expected for pairs of neutral loci, averaging 1.82times the neutral rate over all replicates and pairs of loci. This acceleration, which was observed for all six pairwise combinations of loci, was interpreted asresulting from the interaction bctween selection and recombination. Our experimental results are consistent with many investigations of linkage disequilibrium in natural populations of Drosophila melanogasler that show little or no disequilibrium among enzyme loci. (4) Afortuitous contamination of two cages revealed an apparent regulatory interaction between the migrant and nonmigrant chromosomes at the esterase-C locus. The migrant chromosomes were very rapidly absorbed into the recipient populations, despite this interaction. This result suggests that the dynamics of migration in populations may be phenomenologically richer than anticipated by simple theory.
U-shaped gene frequency distributions