The effect of periodic bottlenecks on the competitive ability of drosophila pseudoobscura lines

Abstract

Competition experiments between several Drosophila pseudoobscura strains that were previously subjected to periodic bottlenecks of different sizes andD. willistoni have been carried out. Contrary to previous results with these two species, where stable coexistence was detected, populations of D. pseudoobscura displaced D. willistoni in a few generations. By using a relative fitness measure, the control lines (that had not gone through bottlenecks) outcompeted D. willistoni faster than bottlenecked lines. One of these, corresponding to the minimum possible bottleneck size of one pair, also shows significantly lower relative fitness than the other strains. These results are discussed in relation to the effect of periodic bottlenecks in reducing genetic variability andits incidence on the competitive ability of these lines. © The Genetical Society of Great Britain.