Spatial variation of biochemical and ecological phenotypes in Drosophila: Electrophoretic and quantitative variation

Abstract

AbstractElectrophoretic variation at three enzyme loci‐alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh), glycerophosphate dehydrogenase (Gpdh), triosephosphate isomerase (Tpi)‐ is compared in Australian Drosophila melanogaster populations at three levels of spatial heterogeneity; among breeding sites, within populations, and between populations at the geographic level. Heterogeneity at the breeding site level greatly exceeds that among adults within populations, indicating greater intermixing at the mobile adult stage than at the developmentally immature and less migratory larval stage. Heterogeneity at the microspatial level is large relative to the geographic level at two of these loci.Spatial patterns of variation in ecological phenotypes are also considered. It is argued that electrophoretic variants may contribute little to an understanding of this quantitative variation, and that a more useful approach in ecological genetics is to consider ecological phenotypes as primary data.