Selection for ethanol tolerance and Adh allozymes in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) allozyme frequencies and tolerance of adult flies to ethanol were measured in population samples of D. melanogaster from a winery in Southern Ontario. Samples were also tested from a number of non-winery sites. Adhfast frequencies decrease as one moves away from the winery, but this drop in allozyme frequency is statistically significant only for those areas that are more than 3 km distant from the winery. Tolerance of adult flies to ethanol also differed between winery and non-winery populations, but these differences were not statistically significant. The data presented here may help to resolve the seeming conflict between the two previous studies of Adh allozyme frequencies in natural populations from highand low-alcohol environments. © 1980, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.