The genetic basis of quantitative variation: numbers of sensory bristles of Drosophila melanogaster as a model system

ABSTRACT A convenient method is described for the intracistronic mapping of genetic sites responsible for electrophoretic variation of a specific protein in Drosophila melanogaster. A number of wild-type isoalleles of the rosy locus have been isolated which are associated with the production of electrophoretically distinguishable xanthine dehydrogenases. Large-scale recombination experiments were carried out involving null enzyme mutants induced on electrophoretically distinct wild-type isoalleles, the genetic basis for which is followed as a nonselective marker in the cross. Additionally, a large-scale recombination experiment was carried out involving null enzyme rosy mutants induced on the same wild-type isoallele. Examination of the electrophoretic character of crossover and convertant products recovered from the latter experiment revealed that all exhibited the same parental electrophoretic character. In addition to documenting the stability of the xanthine dehydrogenase electrophoretic character, this observation argues against a special mutagenesis hypothesis to explain conversions resulting from allele recombination studies.

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Genotype and Trait Specific Responses to Rapamycin Intake in Drosophila melanogaster

Insects ◽

10.3390/insects12050474 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (5) ◽

pp. 474

Author(s):

Palle Duun Rohde ◽

Asbjørn Bøcker ◽

Caroline Amalie Bastholm Jensen ◽

Anne Louise Bergstrøm ◽

Morten Ib Juul Madsen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drosophila Melanogaster ◽

Heat Stress ◽

Side Effects ◽

Protein Kinase ◽

Stress Tolerance ◽

Treated Group ◽

Model System ◽

Treatment Efficiency ◽

Evolutionarily Conserved ◽

Heat Stress Tolerance

Rapamycin is a powerful inhibitor of the TOR (Target of Rapamycin) pathway, which is an evolutionarily conserved protein kinase, that plays a central role in plants and animals. Rapamycin is used globally as an immunosuppressant and as an anti-aging medicine. Despite widespread use, treatment efficiency varies considerably across patients, and little is known about potential side effects. Here we seek to investigate the effects of rapamycin by using Drosophila melanogaster as model system. Six isogenic D. melanogaster lines were assessed for their fecundity, male longevity and male heat stress tolerance with or without rapamycin treatment. The results showed increased longevity and heat stress tolerance for male flies treated with rapamycin. Conversely, the fecundity of rapamycin-exposed individuals was lower than for flies from the non-treated group, suggesting unwanted side effects of the drug in D. melanogaster. We found strong evidence for genotype-by-treatment interactions suggesting that a ‘one size fits all’ approach when it comes to treatment with rapamycin is not recommendable. The beneficial responses to rapamycin exposure for stress tolerance and longevity are in agreement with previous findings, however, the unexpected effects on reproduction are worrying and need further investigation and question common believes that rapamycin constitutes a harmless drug.

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Hybrid dysgenesis-induced quantitative variation on the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster.

Genetics ◽

10.1093/genetics/124.3.627 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 124 (3) ◽

pp. 627-636

Author(s):

C Q Lai ◽

T F Mackay

Keyword(s):

Drosophila Melanogaster ◽

X Chromosome ◽

Quantitative Traits ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Quantitative Variation ◽

Hybrid Dysgenesis ◽

X Chromosomes ◽

Bristle Number ◽

Seven Generations ◽

Polygenic Variation

Abstract To determine the ability of the P-M hybrid dysgenesis system of Drosophila melanogaster to generate mutations affecting quantitative traits, X chromosome lines were constructed in which replicates of isogenic M and P strain X chromosomes were exposed to a dysgenic cross, a nondysgenic cross, or a control cross, and recovered in common autosomal backgrounds. Mutational heritabilities of abdominal and sternopleural bristle score were in general exceptionally high-of the same magnitude as heritabilities of these traits in natural populations. P strain chromosomes were eight times more mutable than M strain chromosomes, and dysgenic crosses three times more effective than nondysgenic crosses in inducing polygenic variation. However, mutational heritabilities of the bristle traits were appreciable for P strain chromosomes passed through one nondysgenic cross, and for M strain chromosomes backcrossed for seven generations to inbred P strain females, a result consistent with previous observations on mutations affecting quantitative traits arising from nondysgenic crosses. The new variation resulting from one generation of mutagenesis was caused by a few lines with large effects on bristle score, and all mutations reduced bristle number.

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Comparative approaches to the study of physiology: Drosophila as a physiological tool

AJP Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology ◽

10.1152/ajpregu.00084.2012 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 304 (3) ◽

pp. R177-R188 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Wendi S. Neckameyer ◽

Kathryn J. Argue

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Drosophila Melanogaster ◽

Pattern Formation ◽

Signaling Pathways ◽

Human Disease ◽

Cognitive Disorders ◽

Model System ◽

Critical Questions ◽

Developmental Signaling ◽

Shed Light

Numerous studies have detailed the extensive conservation of developmental signaling pathways between the model system, Drosophila melanogaster, and mammalian models, but researchers have also profited from the unique and highly tractable genetic tools available in this system to address critical questions in physiology. In this review, we have described contributions that Drosophila researchers have made to mathematical dynamics of pattern formation, cardiac pathologies, the way in which pain circuits are integrated to elicit responses from sensation, as well as the ways in which gene expression can modulate diverse behaviors and shed light on human cognitive disorders. The broad and diverse array of contributions from Drosophila underscore its translational relevance to modeling human disease.

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A Novel System of Fertility Rescue in Drosophila Hybrids Reveals a Link Between Hybrid Lethality and Female Sterility

Genetics ◽

10.1093/genetics/163.1.217 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 163 (1) ◽

pp. 217-226 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Daniel A Barbash ◽

Michael Ashburner

Keyword(s):

Drosophila Melanogaster ◽

Low Temperature ◽

Genetic Basis ◽

Female Sterility ◽

Hybrid Lethality ◽

Hybrid Male ◽

Hybrid Female ◽

F1 Hybrid ◽

Drosophila Gene

Abstract Hybrid daughters of crosses between Drosophila melanogaster females and males from the D. simulans species clade are fully viable at low temperature but have agametic ovaries and are thus sterile. We report here that mutations in the D. melanogaster gene Hybrid male rescue (Hmr), along with unidentified polymorphic factors, rescue this agametic phenotype in both D. melanogaster/D. simulans and D. melanogaster/D. mauritiana F1 female hybrids. These hybrids produced small numbers of progeny in backcrosses, their low fecundity being caused by incomplete rescue of oogenesis as well as by zygotic lethality. F1 hybrid males from these crosses remained fully sterile. Hmr+ is the first Drosophila gene shown to cause hybrid female sterility. These results also suggest that, while there is some common genetic basis to hybrid lethality and female sterility in D. melanogaster, hybrid females are more sensitive to fertility defects than to lethality.

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