EVOLUTION OF THE GENETIC ARCHITECTURE UNDERLYING FITNESS IN THE PITCHER-PLANT MOSQUITO, WYEOMYIA SMITHII.

We examined the genetic basis for evolutionary divergence among geographic populations of the pitcher-plant mosquito, Wyeomyia smithii, using protein electrophoresis and line-cross analysis. Line-cross experiments were performed under both low density, near-optimal conditions, and at high, limiting larval densities sufficient to reduce fitness (rc ) in parental populations by approximately 50%. We found high levels of electrophoretic divergence between ancestral and derived populations, but low levels of divergence between two ancestral populations and between two derived populations. Assessed under near-optimal conditions, the genetic divergence of fitness (rc ) between ancestral and derived populations, but not between two derived populations or between two ancestral populations, has involved both allelic (dominance) and genic (epistatic) interactions. The role of dominance and epistasis in the divergence of rc among populations affects its component traits in a pattern that is unique to each cross. Patterns of genetic differentiation among populations of W. smithii provide evidence for a topographically complex "adaptive landscape" as envisioned by Wright in his "shifting balance" theory of evolution. Although we cannot definitively rule out the role of deterministic evolution in the divergence of populations on this landscape, ecological inference and genetic data are more consistent with a stochastic than a deterministic process. At high, limiting larval density, hybrid vigor is enhanced and the influence of epistasis disappears. Thus, under stressful conditions, the advantages to fitness due to hybrid heterozygosity can outweigh the deleterious effects of fragmented gene complexes. These results have important implications for the management of inbred populations. Outbreeding depression assessed in experimental crosses under benign lab, zoo, or farm conditions may not accurately reveal the increased advantages of heterozygosity in suboptimal or marginal conditions likely to be found in nature. © 1997 The Society for the Study of Evolution.