Reversal of Mating Preference by Crossing Strains of Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

SEXUAL selection may be an important component of the selection pressures determining changes of gene frequency in Mendelian populations, and a number of studies of Drosophila have been made with the object of assessing degree of competition for mates (see, for example, refs. 1 and 2) and have led to the conclusion that, while male vigour is an important factor, discrimination and preference between genotypes do occur and seem to be largely female attributes. In an attempt to assess the importance of mating preference as a factor affecting changes of gene frequency in some experimental populations described elsewhere³, we have come across a phenomenon which, as far as we can discover, has not been reported before.