Polygenic mutation in Drosophila melanogaster: genetic analysis of selection lines.

We have conducted genetic analyses of 12 long-term selection lines of Drosophila melanogaster derived from a highly inbred base population, containing new mutations affecting abdominal and sternopleural bristle number. Biometric analysis of the number of effective factors differentiating the selected lines from the base inbred indicated that with the exception of the three lines selected for increased number of abdominal bristles, three or more mutations contributed to the responses of the selection lines. Analysis of the chromosomal distribution of effects revealed that mutations affecting abdominal bristle number occurred on all three major chromosomes. In addition, Y-linked mutations with effects ranging from one to three bristles occurred in all three lines selected for decreased number of abdominal bristles, as well as in one line selected for increased abdominal bristle number. Mutations affecting sternopleural bristle number were mainly on the X and third chromosomes. One abdominal and one sternopleural selection line showed evidence of a segregating lethal with large effects on bristle number. As an indirect test for allelism of mutations occurring in different selection lines, the three lines selected in the same direction for the same trait were crossed in all possible combinations, and selection continued from the F2 hybrids. Responses of the hybrid lines usually did not exceed those of the most extreme parental lines, indicating that the responses of the parental lines may have been partly due to mutations at the same loci, although other interpretations are possible.