Biology of a duplicate gene system with glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity in Drosophila melanogaster: genetic analysis and differences in fitness components and reaction to environmental parameters among Zw genotypes

Abstract

There are two structural forms of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity in Drosophila melanogaster. Whether one or the other or both show in vitro (and probably in vivo) activity depends on the genotype of a sex-linked locus (Zw). In this article, the relative fittnesses of heterozygotes (with both electromorphs active) and homozygotes (with activity demonstrable for only one or the other electromorph) for the Zw locus are described. It is shown that the relative fitness of heterozygotes increases with increase in population density, or degree of crowding and trophic stress, and that the mean development times of Zw heterozygotes are lower than those of the Zw homozygotes. In addition, and perhaps accounting for the fitness and viability excess of the heterozygotes, one set of evidence strongly suggests that they are better buffered against trophic stress than the homozygotes.