Heterosis in F2 generations of drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Three crosses among inbred lines of Drosophila melanogaster generated by eight generation full-sib mating, three Australasian population crosses, and two Australian/English population crosses were raised to the F2 generation, to examine evidence of hybrid breakdown. Inbred line crosses produced F2 generations that retained, on average, 54% of the FI heterosis, which was not significantly different from the retention of 50% FI heterosis expected under a dominance model of heterosis. Australasian population crosses produced F2 generations with significantly less than 50% of the FI heterosis, while crosses between Australian and English populations produced a F2 generation that generally perfor..