Summary
Previous workers (McKenzie and Parsons, 1972, 1974; McKenzie, 1974; Briscoe et al., 1975) have found anomalous distributions of species of Drosophila, of sexes of D. melanogaster, and of Adh alleles in and around wineries in Australia and Spain. Field studies in California's Sonoma Valley provide evidence that the explanations advanced for these distributions may incorrect. The anomalous distribution of species was attributed to alcohol, either as a selective agent or as a behavioral stimulus. We find a virtually identical species distribution in the absence of environmental alcohol. The anomalous sex ratio was attributedd to differential survivall of the sexes when raised on alcohol. We present crude evidence thatehe difference may simply be a behavioral response to some product of fermentation, which need not be alcohol. Finally, the allele frequency difference reported from Spain was attributed to differential adult mortality on alcohol. We do not find an allele frequency difference even when alcohol is exposed, and therefore suggest that selection is occurring in pre-adult stages.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amerine MA, Joslyn MA (1970) Table Wines: The Technology of Their Production. University of California Press Berkeley
Ayala FJ, Powell JR, Tracey ML, Mourão CA, Pérez-Salas S (1972) Enzyme variability in the D. willistoni group. IV. Genic variation in natural populations of D. willistoni Genetics 70:113–139
Barrows WM (1977) Reationn of the pomace fly, Drosophila ampelophila Loew, to odorous substances. Journal of Experimental Zoology 4:515–537
Briscoe DA, Robertson A, Malpica J (1975) Dominance at the Adh locus in response of adult Drosophila melanogaster to environmental alcohol. Nature 255:148–149
Gibson JB (1970) Enzyme flexibility in Drosophila melanogaster. Nature 227:959–960
Hutner SH, Kaplan HM, Enzman EV (1937) Chemicals attrating Drosophila. American Naturalist 71:575–581
Kreitman M (1980) Assessment of variation within electromorphs of alcohol dehydrogenase in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics in press
McDonald J. Anderson S, Tilton R (1980) Analysis of winery populations of Drosophila melanogaster. In preparation
McKenzie JA (1974) The distristribn of vineyard populations of Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans during vintage and non-vintage periods. Occologia (Berl) 15:1–16
McKenzie JA, Parsons PA (1972) Alcohol tolerance: An ecological parameter in the relative success of Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans. Oecologia (Berl) 10:373–388
McKenzie JA, Parsons PA (1974) Microdifferentiation in a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster to alcohol in the environment. Genetics 77:385–394
Rasmuson B, Wilson LR, Rasmuson M, Zeppenzauer E (1966) Effects of heterozygosity on alcohol dehydrogenase activity in Drosophila. Hereditas 56:313–316
Thorpe WH (1939) Further studies on pre-imaginal olfactory conditioning in insects. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London (B) 127:424–433
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Marks, R.W., Brittnacher, J.G., McDonald, J.F. et al. Wineries, drosophila, alcohol, and Adh. Oecologia 47, 141–144 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00541790
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00541790