Relative Viability in Drosophila melanogaster in “Evolution Canyon”, Israel

Genetic diversity in natural populations has been explored through evolutionary analysis, and patterns of microscale biodiversity have been studied in populations at “Evolution Canyon”, Israel. A total of 2,000 eggs from each of iso-female Drosophila melanogaster line 2-1 from the north-facing slope (NFS) and line 6-1 from the south-facing slope (SFS) were placed in 20 vials and evaluated. Egg-to-adult viability was 0.89 and 0.75 in lines 2-1 and 6-1, respectively, and the difference was statistically significant by t-test. Genetic diversity was higher on the harsher SFS than on the milder NFS. Inter-slope genetic differences corroborated the effect of stochastic climate selection pressures to viability polygenes in populations at “Evolution Canyon”, Israel.