New studies of the alcohol dehydrogenase cline in D. melanogaster from Mexico

An altitudinal cline of frequencies of alcohol dehydrogenase alleles occurs in D. melanogaster populations of southeastern Mexico. A similar cline of two aldehyde oxidase alleles is present, but frequencies of esterase-6 alleles are not distributed clinically. Collections were made from small dispersed populations. Some gene flow occurred throughout the lowlands according to the distribution of two moderately endemic autosomal inversions and five previously described inversions. The clines are believed dependent on a limited gene flow between temperature races of D. melanogaster.