Open AccessGenetic Variation Segregating in Natural Populations of Tribolium castaneum Affecting Traits Observed in Hybrids With T. freemani
Author(s) -
Michael J. Wade,
Norman Johnson,
Rachel Jones,
Vera Siguel,
M. W. McNaughton
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.792
H-Index - 246
eISSN - 1943-2631
pISSN - 0016-6731
DOI - 10.1093/genetics/147.3.1235
Subject(s) - biology , hybrid , genetic variation , epistasis , intraspecific competition , genetics , interspecific competition , evolutionary biology , zoology , gene , ecology , botany
We investigated patterns of within-species genetic variation for traits observed in hybrids (hybrid numbers, hybrid sex ratios, and hybrid male deformities) between two species of flour beetles, Tribolium castaneum and T. freemani. We found genetic variation segregating among four natural populations of T. castaneum as well as within these populations. For some hybrid traits, we observed as much variation among populations 750 km apart as between populations on different continents, suggesting genetic differentiation at a local scale. Within natural populations, the variation segregating among sires is greater than that found in an earlier study for an outbred laboratory population and comparable to that observed between inbred lines derived from the outbred stock by eight generations of brother-sister mating. When sires from T. castaneum are mated to conspecific and heterospecific females, we do not observe a significant correlation at the level of the family mean between the intraspecific and interspecific phenotypes, suggesting the independence of the hybrid traits from comparable traits within species. We discuss our findings in relation to the evolutionary genetics of speciation and the expression of epistatic genetic variance in interspecific crosses.