THE EFFECT OF DEVELOPMENTAL TEMPERATURE ON THE GENETIC ARCHITECTURE UNDERLYING SIZE AND THERMAL CLINES IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AND D-SIMULANS FROM THE EAST COAST OF AUSTRALIA

Abstract

Body size and thermal tolerance clines in Drosophila melanogaster occur along the east coast of Australia. However the extent to which temperature affects the genetic architecture underlying the observed clinal divergence remains unknown. Clinal variation in these traits is associated with cosmopolitan chromosome inversions that cline in D. melanogaster. Whether this association influences the genetic architecture for these traits in D. melanogaster is unclear. Drosophila simulans shows linear clines in body size, but nonlinear clines in cold resistance. Clinally varying inversions are absent in D. simulans. Line-cross and clinal analyses were performed between tropical and temperate populat..