scholarly journals A gene responsible for a cuticular hydrocarbon polymorphism in Drosophila melanogaster

1999 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
JERRY A. COYNE ◽  
CLAUDE WICKER-THOMAS ◽  
JEAN-MARC JALLON

Drosophila melanogaster is polymorphic for the major cuticular hydrocarbon of females. In most populations this hydrocarbon is 7,11-heptacosadiene, but females from Africa and the Caribbean usually possess low levels of 7,11-heptacosadiene and high quantities of its position isomer 5,9-heptacosadiene. Genetic analysis shows that the difference between these two morphs is due to variation at a single segregating factor located on the right arm of chromosome 3 near map position 51·5 and cytological position 87C–D. This is precisely the position of a desaturase gene previously sequenced using primers derived from yeast and mouse, and localized by in situ hybridization to the polytene chromosomes of D. melanogaster. Alleles of this desaturase gene may therefore be responsible for producing the two hydrocarbon morphs. Mating tests following the transfer of these isomers between females of the two morphs show that, in contrast to previous studies, the hydrocarbon profiles have no detectable effect on mating behaviour or sexual isolation.

Genetics ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 143 (4) ◽  
pp. 1689-1698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry A Coyne

Abstract In seven of the eight species of the Drosophila melanogaster group, the predominant cuticular hydrocarbon of males is Ftricosene, but in the island endemic species D. sechellia it is 6-tricosene. The phylogeny of the group implies that the novel hydrocarbon profile of D. sechellia is a derived character. Genetic analysis of hybrids between D. sechellia and its close relative D. simulans show that each of the five major chromosome arms carries at least one gene affecting the ratio of the two tricosene isomers, with the right arm of the third chromosome having the largest effect. The species difference in this character is therefore polygenic with the effects of the different chromosome arms generally additive, although there is some epistasis among third-chromosome genes. Observations of courtship by males who have been coated with foreign hydrocarbons suggest that a male's hydrocarbon profile may slightly affect the degree of sexual isolation in one of the reciprocal hybridizations between these species, but that this role is small compared to that played by hydrocarbon differences between females.


1977 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Szabo ◽  
Robert Elder ◽  
Dale M. Steffensen ◽  
Olke C. Uhlenbeck

1992 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Charlesworth ◽  
Angela Lapid ◽  
Darlene Canada

SummaryData were collected on the distribution of nine families of transposable elements among second and third chromosomes isolated from a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster, by means of in situ hybridization of element probes to polytene chromosomes. It was found that the copy numbers per chromosome in the distal sections of the chromosome arms followed a Poisson distribution. Elements appeared to be distributed randomly along the distal sections of the chromosome arms. There was no evidence for linkage disequilibrium in the distal sections of the chromosomes, but some significant disequilibrium was detected in proximal regions. There were many significant correlations between different element families with respect to the identity of the sites that were occupied in the sample. There were also significant correlations between families with respect to sites at which elements achieved relatively high frequencies. Element frequencies per chromosome band were generally low in the distal sections, but were higher proximally. These results are discussed in the light of models of the population dynamics of transposable elements. It is concluded that they provide strong evidence for the operation of a force or forces opposing transpositional increase in copy number. The data suggest that the rate of transposition perelement per generation is of the order of 10−4, for the elements included in this study.


2000 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
XULIO MASIDE ◽  
STAVROULA ASSIMACOPOULOS ◽  
BRIAN CHARLESWORTH

The rates of movement of 11 families of transposable elements of Drosophila melanogaster were studied by means of in situ hybridization of probes to polytene chromosomes of larvae from a long-term mutation accumulation experiment. Replicate mutation-accumulation lines carrying second chromosomes derived from a single common ancestral chromosome were maintained by backcrosses of single males heterozygous for a balancer chromosome and a wild-type chromosome, and were scored after 116 generations. Twenty-seven transpositions and 1 excision were detected using homozygous viable and fertile second chromosomes, for a total of 235056 potential sources of transposition events and a potential 252880 excision events. The overall transposition rate per element per generation was 1·15×10−4 and the excision rate was 3·95×10−6. The single excision (of a roo element) was due to recombination between the element's long terminal repeats. A survey of the five most active elements among nine homozygous lethal lines revealed no significant difference in the estimates of transposition and excision rates from those from viable lines. The excess of transposition over excision events is in agreement with the results of other in situ hybridization experiments, and supports the conclusion that replicative increase in transposable element copy number is opposed by selection. These conclusions are compared with those from other studies, and with the conclusions from population surveys of element frequencies.


1984 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 387-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Arribas ◽  
Marta Izquierdo

We have studied the presence of a cloned fragment of DNA from Drosophila melanogaster in other organisms by means of nucleic acid hybridization analysis. The isolated region is localized in polytene chromosomes at the 63F subdivision. This region includes a puff that responds within minutes to ecdysone stimulation. We have found that 63F DNA from D. melanogaster hybridizes ‘in situ’ to both DNA and RNA from D. simulans, D. teissieri, and D. hydei. In all these species the isolated DNA remains associated with one early-ecdysone stimulated puff. The isolated Drosophila recombinant DNA is also complementary to polyadenylated RNA from foetal and adult rat liver but fails to hybridize to the nonpolyadenylated RNA classes from both sources and to polyadenylated RNA from rat mammary glands.


Genome ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. Bedo ◽  
A. J. Howells

The white gene of Lucilia cuprina was mapped to trichogen polytene chromosomes using in situ hybridization. A tritium-labelled riboprobe made from the first gene cloned from this species was used with techniques modified from standard methods used for Drosophila melanogaster. Cytological data limiting the location of the white gene to a small portion of 3L and complementing the in situ results are also presented. Key words: Lucilia cuprina, white gene, in situ hybridization.


1981 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. Peacock ◽  
R. Appels ◽  
S. Endow ◽  
D. Glover

SUMMARYThe major type I insert sequence for the 28S rRNA genes of Drosophila melanogaster has been mapped within the chromosomes using a probe synthesized from a cloned sequence containing the entire 5·4 kb segment. The genomic distribution was shown to be complex in that the insert sequence occurred next to many different types of sequences, in addition to occurring as an insert in the 28S rRNA genes of the X chromosome. In situ hybridization of mitotic chromosomes showed most of the insert units not contained in the ribosomal genes to be located near the ribosomal gene cluster on the X chromosome. Additional sites were detected in polytene chromosomes in region 102C, 8–12 and in the hetero-chromatin of the autosomes.


2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
FATIMA HAMLAOUI

It is argued that in Francilian French, the dialect of French spoken in the Paris metropolitan area, in-situ and frontedwh-questions have the same answerhood conditions but vary with respect to their respective focus-set (Reinhart 2006). The difference between the two types of questions lies in the discourse status of their non-whportion. Whereas thewh-phrase is never discourse-given, the non-whportion may or may not be, depending on the discourse context. In Francilian French in-situwh-questions, the non-whportion must be discourse-given. As this language exhibits a strong requirement on sentence stress to be kept rightmost it cannot, in contrast with English, assign sentence stress to a frontedwh-phrase when the non-whportion is discourse-given and needs to be destressed. The only way to simultaneously destress discourse-given items and keep sentence stress rightmost is by aligning thewh-phrase with the right edge of the clause. Whereas in Hungarian prosody triggers movement (Szendrői 2003), in Francilian French, prosody prevents it from occurring. An Optimal Theoretic analysis in the spirit of much recent work on focus and givenness in declaratives (Samek-Lodovici 2005, Féry & Samek-Lodovici 2006) captures this phenomenon.


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