Variation in sexual behavior and negative assortative mating in Drosophila melanogaster.

Abstract

The hypothesis that negative assortative mating occurs as a mechanism limiting inbreeding between genetically related individuals ofDrosophila melanogaster was tested. In order to avoid bias linked to using inbred lines, experiments made use of the F1 hybrid progeny between lines rendered homozygous on chromosomes 1, 2, and 3. No negative assortative mating was found, but significant additive variation was observed between lines for orientation, vibration, copulation latencies, and copulation duration. There was no consistency of results, either among parameters or between sexes from the same line. It is therefore unlikely that the variations observed are due merely to quantitative differences in “vigor”. Since all lines originated from the same wild population, these differences are a possible estimate of natural variation in sexual behavior.