Clan lethals and inter-year allelism in Death Valley Drosophila pseudoobscura

Abstract

A chromosome 2 lethal allelism rate of about 3% found in the 1974 population of D. pseudoobscura in Death Valley, California. This rate was significantly higher than allelism rates in other Southern California populations. The Death Valley population was sampled again in 1975 and 1977, with allelism rates of 1% and 0.5%, respectively. In 1974, several lethals were in high frequencies (about 1%), a pattern that reappeared in 1975 and 1977. However, none of the lethals in high frequency one year was in high frequency another year; the particular lethal alleles present in this ephemeral population appear to be due to their random presence in the flies which refound the population every winter. The results for the Death Valley population are compared with a Japanese population of D. melanogaster in which lethals in high frequency one year also in high frequency in succeeding years and with earlier work on chromosome 3 of D. pseudoobscura, which showed a lower lethal frequency and higher allelism rate.