Directional selection for pulse repetition rate of the courtship sound and correlated responses occurring in several characters in Drosophila mercatorum

Abstract

Bidirectional selection for pulse repetition rate, or interpulse interval, Aipi, of the A courtship sound in Drosophila mercatorum successfully resulted in the low (LRR) and the high (HER) pulse repetition rate lines and also the control, intermediate, line (CER) was obtained. The response to selection was asymmetrical, the change in LRR being much greater than that in HRR. The fact that the response was not large for HRR may support Ewing (1977) who estimated the minimum interpulse interval of about 10 msec for the pulse sounds in Drosophila. The realized heritability which was estimated from the regression of the generation means on cumulated selection differentials for the first to the 11th generations was 0.32 for LRR and 0,14 for HRR. Ck)rrelated responses to selection were found for the number of pulses per burst, mating propensities, mating preferences, duration of copulation, the rate of development, the daily pattern of oviposition, pupation sites, larva to adult viability and the body size. The prominent feature was found for HRR, which was apparently different in those correlated responses from the other two lines. © 1982, The Genetics Society of Japan. All rights reserved.