Relative Frequencies of Deleterious Genes in Natural Populations of Drosophila melanogaster Originating from the Nucleoelectric Plant of Laguna Verde, Veracruz

In order to obtain information about possible changes and/or damages that could be caused by the operation of the nuclear reactors of the Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant, over populations of Drosophila melanogaster that live in the area, a series of semi-annual collections (summer and winter) during the years 1991-1992 and 1996-1998 were done and later subjected to a battery of tests. Flies of this species after been capture were carry to the ININ Biology laboratory where they were subjected individually to a series of crosses that allowed us in the third generation to detect the presence of deleterious genes that, depending on their viability, were classified as normal, lethal or semi-lethal according to Wallace’s methodology. In this way a total of 933 second chromosomes were analyze and from them the relative frequencies for each of the categories calculated, as well for each sampling season, this information is shown in tables 1 and 2.Resultsfrom the statistical test applied indicates that there are nonsignificant difference between the populations and that the differences if they existed, are due only to environmental changes, which normally occurs in all populations, due to this we can point out that the presence of the reactors does not seem to negatively influence the behavior of the populations that live in the area.