Detection of simple polygenic segregations in a natural population

Penetrance frequencies were used to quantify segregating polygenic effects in a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster. When males from a series of 100 isofemale strains were crossed to females from a veinlet (ve) line that had been selected for shortened veins, gaps commonly appeared in the fifth longitudinal (L5) vein in the ve/+ heterozygotes. We were able to assign each strain to one of six significantly different clusters, based upon the pattern of polygenic modifiers of ve dominance segregating in each strain. We conclude that the extensive range of phenotypic variation in vein-forming ability is actually based upon a relatively simple underlying polygenic structure that is consistent with segregation of only a small number of alleles or allele combinations in the wild population.