Estimating single gene effects on quantitative traits 1. A diallel method applied to Est 6 in D. melanogaster

Abstract

A modified diallel cross is used to estimate effects of alleles at the esterase 6 locus, relative to strain and environmental variance, in Drosophila melanogaster. Three strains homozygous for Est 6 (s) and three homozygous for Est 6 (F) were crossed in all 36 combinations. Male progeny were scored for mating speed, copula duration and esterase 6 enzyme activity, and all progeny for developmental time. These alleles show a significant additive effect on mating speed, but not on the other traits. Copula duration, developmental time and enzyme activity show additive strain genetic variance. Enzyme activity and developmental time also have maternal or X-chromosome strain variance, and these two traits are significantly correlated. This modified diallel method is generally useful because it permits the partition of trait variance into additive and dominant locus, background genetic and environmental components.