The genetics of two esterase systems in adults of the olive fruit fly Dacus oleae (Gmel.) have been studied by starch gel electrophoresis. Two unlinked autosomal genes, each with multiple alleles, control the synthesis of a number of isozymes. Gene A controls the synthesis of an acetylcholinesterase, and gene B that of a pseudocholinesterase or lipase. Gene B produces hybrid enzyme in heterozygotes for active alleles. In crosses the segregation of seven active and one silent allele in gene A, and of six active and one silent allele in gene B, have been studied. Six more active alleles for gene A and five active alleles of gene B have not been studied in this paper.

Two polymorphic esterase loci, EstA and EstB, of the olive-fruit fly Dacus oleae were studied in a natural population. The analysis of about 500 individuals revealed the presence of 15 alleles for EstA and 12 alleles for EstB. A ‘silent’ allele was found segregating at both loci. Segregation data for most of the alleles are presented. The allele frequency distribution follows the same pattern at both loci: one allele of each gene has a frequency of nearly 0·50, a few have frequencies between 0·05 and 0·15 and many are below 0·05. Two main hypotheses, those of overdominance and selective neutrality, were examined in order to explain these polymorphisms. We deduced that under both hypotheses a relatively high mutation rate is necessary to balance the result of random drift. This rate was estimated to be higher than 4 × 10−5 for the EstA locus. Since homozygotes for the ‘silent’ allele at the first or at the second locus were found in the population in expected frequencies, it was concluded that these alleles are not inferior to active ones under natural conditions.

This study extends previous observations that chromosome loss in somaticcells of juveniles of the pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas is associated with reduced growth rate. All four studies designed to examine this association (two usingrandom population samples and two using full sibs) produced the same result. This consistent effect appears to be unrelated with the commonly, but not consistently, observed correlation between degree of allozyme heterozygosity and growth. We propose thatthe inverse relationship between aneuploidy and growth is due to the unmasking of deleterious recessive genes caused by ‘progressive haploidization’ of somatic cells. Because unmasking of deleterious recessive genes by random chromosome lossisunlikely in polyploid cells, this hypothesis may also provide an explanation for theobservation that artificially produced polyploid shellfish usually grow at faster rates than normal diploid ones.

The degree of heterozygosity as determined by electrophoretic analysis of three or four polymorphic loci correlates positively with survival in age groups of the American oyster (Crassostrea virginica) collected as spat from two different natural populations. The phenomenon is shown to operate in ages from 2 weeks (post-settlement) to 3 years and appears to be general in populations of marine molluscs. The most likely explanation for this result is that heterozygosity improves survival through its effect on growth (heterozygotes grow faster). The effects of individual loci on viability are independent of each other. A direct involvement of the enzyme polymorphisms is the most probable genetic interpretation of the data, but associative overdominance cannot be excluded.

The present study checks on the validity of the hypothesis that heterozygosity and the fluctuating asymmetry (FA), common measure of the developmental stability, are linked in populations of wild and cultured stocks of Sparus aurata from five countries. Muscle and liver samples were analysed for variation in 26 allozymes and three microsatellite loci. Pectoral fin rays and upper and lower gill rakers of the first branchial arch were counted on the left and on the right sides of each fish. Fluctuating asymmetry existed in the majority of the samples although their values were consistently low, (0·305±0·147), but higher in the cultured samples. The allozyme heterozygosity values were always high, but lower in the cultured samples. The microsatellite DNA analysis produced similar results. Heterozygosity was higher in cultured individuals (except for the Greek samples). These findings seem to be early evidence that the reared samples are losing some genetic variation, especially due to the loss of the rarest alleles (which were present in the wild populations). Genetic drift, probably caused by propagation practices, is most likely responsible for the decrease of the genetic variation. No distinct pattern of geographic separation was identified.