9408004 Meffert Current research has shown that a recovery from a crash in population size (i.e., bottleneck) can involve increased potential for shifts in the reproductive traits due to apparent release from the non-additive genetic constraints that operated on the ancestral state. The proposed study will examine the degree to which populations can exploit such perturbed genetic structure. First, genetic constraints on reproductive traits will be identified through the resistance of a housefly population to selection upon multivariate (composite) components of videotaped mating behavior. Secondly, a derived bottleneck population that is determined to have a significant genetic disruption (through parent-offspring comparisons) and the stock control will each be subjected to selection upon the multivariate trait that exhibited low selectional response to the ancestor. Line cross analysis will evaluate how non additive genetic components (e.g., dominance and epistasis) may be converted to additive genetic variance through the bottleneck event and tests on mate recognition will assess the consequences of shifts in mating repertoires. Such experiments on the genetic properties of populations near extinction are critical to management of endangered species of pest invasions in that they identify genetic processes that mould traits in equilibrium populations.
