ANALYZING CORRELATIONS OF 3 TYPES IN SELECTED LINES OF DROSOPHILA-MELANOGASTER THAT HAVE EVOLVED STABLE EXTREME GEOTACTIC PERFORMANCE

The behavior-genetic analysis of Drosophila melanogaster with geotacti c performance as the phenotype is an ideal model system with which to investigate the complex relations between heredity and behavior. As pa rt of a long-term, 38-year study, we report 4 experiments that identif y and analyze trait correlations in the selected high- and low-geotaxi s lines. We performed F-2 correlational analyses and backcrosses to ex amine 3 types of correlations: (a) genotype-genotype (alcohol dehydrog enase [Adh]-amylase [Amy]), (b) genotype-phenotype (Adh and Amy-geotax is), and (c) phenotype-phenotype (mate preference-geotaxis). Only the Adh-geotaxis correlation survived meiosis and reappeared in the F-2 ge neration, which indicates a genotype-phenotype correlation, whereas th e others did not. The importance of hybrid correlational analysis to t he behavior-genetic analysis of a species is discussed.