Description:
<jats:p>In the present paper, we focused on the coadaptive aspect of genetic
variability at population level and its relation to genomic stress such as
inbreeding. The paper evaluates the effects of an experimental reduction of
average heterozygosity after fourteen generations of systematic inbreeding in
laboratory conditions, on developmental stability in Drosophila subobscura
populations from two ecologically and topologically distinct habitats,
knowing that they possess a certain degree of genetic differences due to
their different evolutionary histories. The aims were to analyze: (i) the
variability change of wing size (length and width) among the inbred lines
from both populations; (ii) the relations between homozigosity and level of
fluctuating asymmetry as a potential measure of developmental instability, in
inbred lines originating from two populations. Results for the wing size
showed similar between line variability pattern across generations of
systematic inbreeding in both populations. The obtained results suggest that
variability of fluctuating asymmetry as a measure of developmental
instability can not be related to homozygosity due to inbreeding per se, in
both experimental populations.</jats:p>