Genes underlying species differences in CHC production between Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans.

Genome ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Ward ◽  
Amanda J. Moehring

Surface chemical compounds are key components of survival and reproduction in many species. Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) are chemical compounds produced by all insects that are used for both desiccation resistance and chemical communication, including communication related to mating. In the species pair of Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans, female CHCs stimulate conspecific males to mate and repel heterospecific males. While CHCs are a critical contributor to both reproductive success within a species and isolation between species, few genes underlying species variation in CHC profiles are known. Here, we use genetic mapping of the 3rd chromosome to test a suite of candidate genes for interspecies variation in CHCs. Candidate gene CG5946 was found to be involved in species differences in the production of 7,11-heptacosadiene and 7-tricosene between D. melanogaster and D. simulans. This is therefore a new candidate locus contributing to species-specific variation in the CHC profile. In the process of mapping genes for CHCs, we also identified 29 candidate genes for the reduced survival or inviability of interspecies hybrids.

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry MM Walker ◽  
Ray Gonzalez ◽  
Joe Z Kang ◽  
Josh H McDermott ◽  
Andrew J King

Pitch perception is critical for recognizing speech, music and animal vocalizations, but its neurobiological basis remains unsettled, in part because of divergent results across species. We investigated whether species-specific differences exist in the cues used to perceive pitch and whether these can be accounted for by differences in the auditory periphery. Ferrets accurately generalized pitch discriminations to untrained stimuli whenever temporal envelope cues were robust in the probe sounds, but not when resolved harmonics were the main available cue. By contrast, human listeners exhibited the opposite pattern of results on an analogous task, consistent with previous studies. Simulated cochlear responses in the two species suggest that differences in the relative salience of the two pitch cues can be attributed to differences in cochlear filter bandwidths. The results support the view that cross-species variation in pitch perception reflects the constraints of estimating a sound’s fundamental frequency given species-specific cochlear tuning.


Genetics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 211 (3) ◽  
pp. 1089-1104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingzi Xu ◽  
Kerry L. Shaw

Differences in mating behaviors evolve early during speciation, eventually contributing to reproductive barriers between species. Knowledge of the genetic and genomic basis of these behaviors is therefore integral to a causal understanding of speciation. Acoustic behaviors are often part of the mating ritual in animal species. The temporal rhythms of mating songs are notably species-specific in many vertebrates and arthropods and often underlie assortative mating. Despite discoveries of mutations that disrupt the temporal rhythm of these songs, we know surprisingly little about genes affecting naturally occurring variation in the temporal pattern of singing behavior. In the rapidly speciating Hawaiian cricket genus Laupala, the striking species variation in song rhythms constitutes a behavioral barrier to reproduction between species. Here, we mapped the largest-effect locus underlying interspecific variation in song rhythm between two Laupala species to a narrow genomic region, wherein we find no known candidate genes affecting song temporal rhythm in Drosophila. Whole-genome sequencing, gene prediction, and functional annotation of this region reveal an exciting and promising candidate gene, the putative cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channel-like gene, for natural variation in mating behavior, suggesting that ion channels are important targets of selection on rhythmic signaling during establishment of behavioral isolation and rapid speciation.


Genetics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 156 (1) ◽  
pp. 269-282
Author(s):  
Toshiyuki Takano-Shimizu

Abstract Interspecific cross is a powerful means to uncover hidden within- and between-species variation in populations. One example is a bristle loss phenotype of hybrids between Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans, although both the pure species have exactly the same pattern of bristle formation on the notum. There exists a large amount of genetic variability in the simulans populations with respect to the number of missing bristles in hybrids, and the variation is largely attributable to simulans X chromosomes. Using nine molecular markers, I screened the simulans X chromosome for genetic factors that were responsible for the differences between a pair of simulans lines with high (H) and low (L) missing bristle numbers. Together with duplication-rescue experiments, a single major quantitative locus was mapped to a 13F–14F region. Importantly, this region accounted for most of the differences between H and L lines in three other independent pairs, suggesting segregation of H and L alleles at the single locus in different populations. Moreover, a deficiency screening uncovered several regions with factors that potentially cause the hybrid bristle loss due to epistatic interactions with the other factors.


2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1864) ◽  
pp. 20171670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly C. Womack ◽  
Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard ◽  
Luis A. Coloma ◽  
Juan C. Chaparro ◽  
Kim L. Hoke

Sensory losses or reductions are frequently attributed to relaxed selection. However, anuran species have lost tympanic middle ears many times, despite anurans' use of acoustic communication and the benefit of middle ears for hearing airborne sound. Here we determine whether pre-existing alternative sensory pathways enable anurans lacking tympanic middle ears (termed earless anurans) to hear airborne sound as well as eared species or to better sense vibrations in the environment. We used auditory brainstem recordings to compare hearing and vibrational sensitivity among 10 species (six eared, four earless) within the Neotropical true toad family (Bufonidae). We found that species lacking middle ears are less sensitive to high-frequency sounds, however, low-frequency hearing and vibrational sensitivity are equivalent between eared and earless species. Furthermore, extratympanic hearing sensitivity varies among earless species, highlighting potential species differences in extratympanic hearing mechanisms. We argue that ancestral bufonids may have sufficient extratympanic hearing and vibrational sensitivity such that earless lineages tolerated the loss of high frequency hearing sensitivity by adopting species-specific behavioural strategies to detect conspecifics, predators and prey.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 597-598
Author(s):  
J. Tienaho ◽  
N. Silvan ◽  
R. Muilu-Mäkelä ◽  
P. Kilpeläinen ◽  
E. Poikulainen ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1826) ◽  
pp. 20152954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Pasquaretta ◽  
Marine Battesti ◽  
Elizabeth Klenschi ◽  
Christophe A. H. Bousquet ◽  
Cedric Sueur ◽  
...  

Animals use a number of different mechanisms to acquire crucial information. During social encounters, animals can pass information from one to another but, ideally, they would only use information that benefits survival and reproduction. Therefore, individuals need to be able to determine the value of the information they receive. One cue can come from the behaviour of other individuals that are already using the information. Using a previous extended dataset, we studied how individual decision-making is influenced by the behaviour of conspecifics in Drosophila melanogaster . We analysed how uninformed flies acquire and later use information about oviposition site choice they learn from informed flies. Our results suggest that uninformed flies adjust their future choices based on how coordinated the behaviours of the informed individuals they encounter are. Following social interaction, uninformed flies tended either to collectively follow the choice of the informed flies or to avoid it. Using social network analysis, we show that this selective information use seems to be based on the level of homogeneity of the social network. In particular, we found that the variance of individual centrality parameters among informed flies was lower in the case of a ‘follow’ outcome compared with the case of an ‘avoid’ outcome.


2000 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNELI HOIKKALA ◽  
SELIINA PÄÄLLYSAHO ◽  
JOUNI ASPI ◽  
JAAKKO LUMME

The males of six species of the Drosophila virilis group (including D. virilis) keep their wings extended while producing a train of sound pulses, where the pulses follow each other without any pause. The males of the remaining five species of the group produce only one sound pulse during each wing extension/vibration, which results in species-specific songs with long pauses (in D. littoralis about 300 ms) between successive sound pulses. Genetic analyses of the differences between the songs of D. virilis and D. littoralis showed that species-specific song traits are affected by genes on the X chromosome, and for the length of pause, also by genes on chromosomes 3 and 4. The X chromosomal genes having a major impact on pulse and pause length were tightly linked with white, apricot and notched marker genes located at the proximal third of the chromosome. A large inversion in D. littoralis, marked by notched, prevents more precise localization of these genes by classical crossing methods.


2009 ◽  
Vol 55 (11) ◽  
pp. 1050-1057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian M. Norry ◽  
Peter F. Larsen ◽  
Yongjie Liu ◽  
Volker Loeschcke

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