Maintenance mechanism of polymorphism at the alpha-Gpdh locus in Drosophila melanogaster.

Polymorphism at the alpha-Gpdh locus was studied in Drosophila melanogaster. Using two different lines, one marked by the F allele (FF line) another by the S allele (SS line), four populations were initiated, two in which the initial frequency of F was 0.1 and two in which it was 0.9. They have been observed for 34 generations. From the fifth generation on, the equilibrium frequency in the four cages was about 0.60. Viability has been measured during the evolution of te populations while F frequencies changed and recombinations between the FF and SS lines occurred. It has been evaluated in synthetic populations built with different frequencies: (1) from the original FF and SS lines and (2) from FF and SS lines extracted after 34 generations of joint evolution. In all three cases, the FF viability depended on the frequency of the F allele. The similarity of the three linear regressions implies that alpha-Gpdh locus or other closely linked loci is the target of the selection in the populations analyzed here.