Abstract
Sexual isolation inDrosophila is typically measured by multiple-choice mating tests. While many environmental variables during such tests are controlled by the researcher, there are some factors that are usually uncontrolled. We demonstrate, usingDrosophila melanogaster andD. pseudoobscura flies, that the temperature of rearing, preadult density, and level of consanguinity, can all produce differences in mating propensity between genetically equivalent flies. These differences in mating propensity, in turn, can give rise to statistically significant results in multiple-choice mating tests, leading to positive isolation values and the artifactual inference of sexual isolation between populations. This fact agrees with a nonrandom excess of significant positive tests found in a review of the literature ofDrosophila intraspecific mating choice. An overestimate of true cases of sexual isolation inDrosophila in the literature can, therefore, not be ruled out.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson W. W. and Ehrman L. 1967 Mating choice in crosses between geographic populations ofDrosophila pseudoobscura.Am. Nat. 81, 47–53.
Barth M., Hirsch H. V. B. and Heisenberg M. 1997 Rearing in different light regimes affects courtship behaviour inDrosophila melanogaster.Anim. Behav. 53, 25–38
Burnet B. and Connolly K. 1974 Activity and sexual behaviour inDrosophila melanogaster. InThe genetics of behaviour (ed. J. H. F. van Abeleen), pp. 201–258. North Holland, Amsterdam.
Cade W. H. 1984 Genetic variation underlying sexual behaviour and reproduction.Am. Zool. 24, 355–366.
Carracedo M. C., Casares P., Izquierdo J. I. and Piñeiro R. 1991 Receptivity and sexual maturation ofDrosophila melanogaster females in relation to hybridization withD. simulans males: a populational analysis.Anim. Behav. 42, 201–208.
Casares P., Carracedo M. C., Piñeiro R., San Miguel E. and García-Flórez L. 1992 Genetic basis for female receptivity inDrosophila melanogaster: a diallel study.Heredity 69, 400–411.
Casares P., Carracedo M. C., San Miguel E., Piñeiro R. and García-Flórez L. 1993 Male mating speed inDrosophila melanogaster: Differences in genetic architecture and in relative performance according to female genotype.Behav. Genet. 23, 349–358.
Casares P., Carracedo M. C., del Rio B., Piñeiro R., García-Flórez L. and Barros A. R. 1998 Disentangling the effects of mating propensity and mating choice inDrosophila.Evolution 52, 126–133.
Cook R. M. 1973 Courtship processing inDrosophila melanogaster. I. Selection for receptivity to wingless males.Anim. Behav. 21, 338–348.
Dodd D. M. B. 1989 Reproductive isolation as a consequence of adaptive divergence inDrosophila pseudoobscura.Evolution 43, 1308–1311.
Dodd D. M. B. and Powell J. R. 1985 Founder-flush speciation: an update of experimental results withDrosophila.Evolution 39, 1388–1392.
Dow M. A. 1976 Analysis of truncated distributions: mating speed inDrosophila melanogaster.Behav. Genet. 6, 385–389.
Ehrman L. 1990 Developmental isolation and subsequent adult behaviour ofDrosophila pseudoobscura.Behav. Genet. 20, 623–629.
Ehrman L. and Parsons P. A. 1980 Sexual isolation among widely distributed populations ofDrosophila immigrans.Behav. Genet. 10, 401–407.
Ehrman L. and Parsons P. A. 1981 Sexual isolation among iso-female strains within a population ofDrosophila immigrans.Behav. Genet. 11, 127–133.
Etges W. J. 1992 Premating isolation is determined by larval substrates in cactophilicDrosophila mojavensis.Evolution 46, 1945–1950.
Henderson N. R. and Lambert D. M. 1982 No significant deviation from random mating of worldwide populations ofDrosophila melanogaster.Nature 300, 437–440.
Kilias G., Alahiotis S. N. and Pelecanos M. 1980 A multifactorial genetic investigation of speciation theory usingDrosophila melanogaster.Evolution 34, 730–737.
Kim Y-K., Koepfer R. and Ehrman L. 1996 Developmental isolation and subsequent adult behaviour ofDrosophila pulistorum. III. Alternative rearing.Behav. Genet. 26, 27–37.
Lambert D. M. and Henderson N. R. 1986 The stability of the specific-mate recognition system ofDrosophila melanogaster.Behav.Genet. 16, 369–373.
Malogolowkin-Cohen C., Simmons A. S. and Levene H. 1965 A study of sexual isolation between certain strains ofDrosophilapaulistorum.Evolution 19, 95–103.
Manning A. 1968 The effects of artificial selection for slow mating inDrosophila simulans. I. The behavioural changes.Anim.Behav. 16, 108–113.
Markow T. A. 1981 Mating preferences are not predictive of the direction of evolution in experimental populations ofDrosophila.Science 213, 1405–1407.
Merrell D. J. 1949 Selective mating inDrosophila.Genetics 34, 370–389.
Millar C. D. and Lambert D. M. 1986 Laboratory-induced changes in the mate recognition system ofDrosophila pseudoobscura.Behav. Genet. 16, 285–294.
Parsons P. A. 1973Behavioural and ecological genetics: a study inDrosophila. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Paterson H. E. H. 1985 The recognition concept of species. InSpecies and speciation (ed. E. S. Vrba), pp 21–29. Transvaal Museum Monograph No 4, Pretoria.
Petit C., Kitagawa O. and Takamura T. 1976. Mating system between Japanese and French geographic strains ofDrosophila melanogaster.Jpn. J. Genet. 51, 99–108.
Piñeiro R., Carracedo M. C., Izquierdo J. I. and Casares P. 1993 Bidirectional selection for female receptivity inDrosophila melanogaster.Behav. Genet. 23, 77–83.
Pot W., Van Delden W. and Kruijt J. P. 1980 Genotypic differences in mating success and the maintenance of the alcohol dehydrogenase: No evidence for overdominance or rare genotype mating advantage.Behav. Genet. 10, 43–58.
Powell J. R. 1978 The founder-flush speciation theory: an experimental approach.Evolution 32, 465–474.
Pruzan A. 1976 Effects of age, rearing and mating experience on frequency dependent sexual selection inDrosophila pseudoobscura.Evolution 30, 130–145
Reed S. C. and Reed E. W. 1950 Natural selection in laboratory populations ofDrosophila. II. Competition between a whiteeye gene and its wild type allele.Evolution 4, 34–42.
Ringo J. M., Wood D., Rockwell R. and Dowse H. 1985 An experiment testing two hypotheses of speciation.Am. Nat. 126, 642–661.
Spiess E. B. 1970 Mating propensity and its genetic basis inDrosophila. InEssays in Evolution and genetics in honor of Theodosius Dobzhansky (eds M. K. Hetch and W. C. Steere), pp 315–379. Appleton Century Crofts, New York.
Spieth H. T. 1968 Evolutionary implications of sexual behaviour inDrosophila.Evol. Biol. 2, 157–193.
Spieth H. T. and Ringo J. M. 1983 Mating behaviour and sexual isolation inDrosophila. InThe genetics and biology of Drosophila (eds M. Ashburner, H. L. Carson and J. N. Thompson Jr.), pp. 223–284. Academic Press, New York.
Zouros E. and D’Entremont C. J. 1980 Sexual isolation among populations ofDrosophila mojavensis: response to pressure from a related species.Evolution 34, 421–430.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Casares, P., Piñeiro, R. & Carracedo, M.C. Is premating isolation inDrosophila overestimated due to uncontrolled factors?. J Genet 84, 259–264 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02715796
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02715796