The genetic variation and covariation among fitness components in Drosophila melanogaster females and males.

The results presented in this study indicate low to moderate level of heritable variation for the following fitness components in Drosophila melanogaster sampled from natural population: early and late fecundity of females, virility of males and longevity of females and males. The most striking exception from this are high additive genetic variances for preadult developmental duration in both sexes. Females exhibit significant negative genetic correlations between early and late components of fitness. In contrast to females, we did not observe any measurable correlations between components of fitness in males. Our data suggest that genetic covariance structure between fitness components differs by sex. We also observed significant negative correlations between virility of males and late components of female life history.