Epistatic interaction between unlinked inversions in Indian natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster.docVIP

Epistatic interaction Centre of Advanced Study in Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Genetics Laboratory, Varanasi-221 005, India (Received 29 October 1990; accepted 14 June 1991) Summary - Fourteen Indian natural populations (6 from the north and 8 from the south) of Drosophila rn,elanogaster were screened for chromosome inversions and 23 paracentric inversions including 4 common cosmopolitan (In(2L)t, In(2R)NS, In(3L)P and In(3R)P), 2 rare cosmopolitan (In(3R)Mo and In(3R)C) and a recurrent endemic (In(3L)IB) found to be common in distribution were detected. Comparison of the observed and expected numbers (via the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium) of different karyotypes produced by all these inversions (each treated independently) showed no significant deviation from expectation in any of the populations analysed. During the present investigation data intra- and interchromosomal associations have been obtained to test chromosome interactions in Indian natural populations of D melanogaster. The results show different associations between linked inversions of the second and third chromosomes occur randomly, providing no evidence for epistatic interaction between linked inversions. Furthermore, the majority of pairs of unlinked inversions of major autosomes also occur in random combinations. However, highly significant non-random associations were found populations from south India and between In(2L)t and In(3R)P in 11 populations out of 14 analysed. There is a significant excess of individuals which either doubly homozygous for ST (standard) at both unlinked inversion loci or doubly heterozygous, indicating epistatic interactions between unlinked inversions in these populations. Drosophila melanosgaster / inversion polymorphism / epistatic interaction / Indian populations des inversions non liées dans des popula- *  l melanogaster de l’Inde (6 du Nord 8 du Sud) ont été examinées pour des inversions chromosomiques. Vingt-trois inversions paracentrique