| identification of a mariner element from the tsetse fly, glossina palpalis palpalis. | in the present study, the polymerase chain reaction was used initially to demonstrate the presence of mariner sequences in seven species/subspecies of tsetse flies. dna hybridization experiments show mariner sequences to be dispersed within the tsetse genome and that there are large variations in copy numbers among the various taxa. a genomic library was used to isolate and characterize a full-length mariner element from g. p. palpalis. the results indicate that this element is 1257 bp in length ... | 1995 | 7551197 |
| horizontal transmission, vertical inactivation, and stochastic loss of mariner-like transposable elements. | horizontal transmission has been well documented as a major mechanism for the dissemination of mariner-like elements (mles) among species. less well understood are mechanisms that limit vertical transmission of mles resulting in the "spotty" or discontinuous distribution observed in closely related species. in this article we present evidence that the genome of the common ancestor of the melanogaster species subgroup of drosophila contained an mle related to the mellifera (honey bee) subfamily. ... | 1995 | 7877497 |
| comparative genomics of drosophila mtdna: novel features of conservation and change across functional domains and lineages. | to gain insight on mitochondrial dna (mtdna) evolution, we assembled and analyzed the mitochondrial genomes of drosophila erecta, d. ananassae, d. persimilis, d. willistoni, d. mojavensis, d. virilis and d. grimshawi together with the sequenced mtdnas of the melanogaster subgroup. genomic comparisons across the well-defined drosophila phylogeny impart power for detecting conserved mtdna regions that maintain metabolic function and regions that evolve uniquely on lineages. evolutionary rate varie ... | 2009 | 19533212 |
| comparative gene expression analysis of dtg, a novel target gene of dpp signaling pathway in the early drosophila melanogaster embryo. | in the early drosophila melanogaster embryo, dpp, a secreted molecule that belongs to the tgf-β superfamily of growth factors, activates a set of downstream genes to subdivide the dorsal region into amnioserosa and dorsal epidermis. here, we examined the expression pattern and transcriptional regulation of dtg, a new target gene of dpp signaling pathway that is required for proper amnioserosa differentiation. we showed that the expression of dtg was controlled by dpp and characterized a 524-bp e ... | 2014 | 24321690 |
| unusual variability of the drosophila melanogaster ref(2)p protein which controls the multiplication of sigma rhabdovirus. | the ref(2)p gene of drosophila melanogaster was identified by the discovery of two alleles, po and pp, respectively, permissive and restrictive for sigma rhabdovirus multiplication. a surprising variability of this gene was first noticed by the observation of size differences between the transcripts of permissive and restrictive alleles. in this paper, another restrictive allele, pn, clearly distinct from pp, is described: it exhibits a weaker antiviral effect than pp and differs from pp by its ... | 1993 | 8462852 |
| transepithelial transport of salicylate by the malpighian tubules of insects from different orders. | the organic anion salicylate is a plant secondary metabolite that protects plants against phytophagous insects. in this study, a combination of salicylate-selective microelectrodes and a radioisotope tracer technique was used to study the transepithelial transport of salicylate by the malpighian tubules of 10 species of insects from five orders. our results show that salicylate is transported into the lumen of the malpighian tubules in all the species evaluated, except rhodnius prolixus. the tra ... | 2007 | 17640663 |
| a comparison of frost expression among species and life stages of drosophila. | frost (fst) is a gene associated with cold exposure in drosophila melanogaster. we used real-time pcr to assess whether cold exposure induces expression of fst in 10 different life stages of d. melanogaster, and adults of seven other drosophila species. we exposed groups of individuals to 0 °c (2 h), followed by 1 h recovery (22 °c). frost was significantly upregulated in response to cold in eggs, third instar larvae, and 2- and 5-day-old male and female adults in d. melanogaster. life stages in ... | 2012 | 21955087 |
| an intron loss of dfak gene in species of the drosophila melanogaster subgroup and phylogenetic analysis. | drosophila focal adhesion kinase (dfak) gene is a single-copy nuclear gene. previous study revealed that drosophila melanogaster and drosophila simulans had lost an intron precisely within the tyrosine kinase (tyk) domain of this gene. however, this did not happen in several other drosophila species, including drosophila elegans, drosophila ficusphila, drosophila biarmipes, drosophila jambulina, drosophila prostipennis, drosophila takahashii, and drosophila pseudoobscura. in the current study, h ... | 2009 | 18310070 |
| fast protein evolution and germ line expression of a drosophila parental gene and its young retroposed paralog. | this is the first detailed study of the evolution, phylogenetic distribution, and transcription of one young retroposed gene, cg13732, and its parental gene cg15645, whose functions are unknown. cg13732 is a recognizable retroposed copy of cg15645 retaining the signals of this process. we name the parental gene cervantes and the retrogene quijote. to determine when this duplication occurred and the phylogenetic distribution of quijote, we employed polymerase chain reaction, southern blotting, an ... | 2006 | 16916943 |
| naturally occurring variation in copia expression is due to both element (cis) and host (trans) regulatory variation. | significant differences in levels of copia [drosophila long terminal repeat (ltr) retrotransposon] expression exist among six species representing the drosophila melanogaster species complex (d. melanogaster, drosophila mauritiana, drosophila simulans, drosophila sechellia, drosophila yakuba, and drosophila erecta) and a more distantly related species (drosophila willistoni). these differences in expression are correlated with major size variation mapping to putative regulatory regions of the co ... | 1996 | 8692951 |
| host plant-driven sensory specialization in drosophila erecta. | finding appropriate feeding and breeding sites is crucial for all insects. to fulfil this vital task, many insects rely on their sense of smell. alterations in the habitat--or in lifestyle--should accordingly also be reflected in the olfactory system. solid functional evidence for direct adaptations in the olfactory system is however scarce. we have, therefore, examined the sense of smell of drosophila erecta, a close relative of drosophila melanogaster and specialist on screw pine fruits (panda ... | 2013 | 23595274 |
| evidence for complex selection on four-fold degenerate sites in drosophila melanogaster. | we considered genome-wide four-fold degenerate sites from an african drosophila melanogaster population and compared them to short introns. to include divergence and to polarize the data, we used its close relatives drosophila simulans, drosophila sechellia, drosophila erecta and drosophila yakuba as outgroups. in d. melanogaster, the gc content at four-fold degenerate sites is higher than in short introns; compared to its relatives, more at than gc is fixed. the former has been explained by cod ... | 2012 | 23020078 |
| evidence for evolutionary constraints in drosophila metal biology. | mutations in single drosophila melanogaster genes can alter total body metal accumulation. we therefore asked whether evolutionary constraints maintain biologically abundant metal ions (iron, copper, manganese and zinc) to similar concentrations in different species of drosophilidae, or whether metal homeostasis is a highly adaptable trait as shown previously for triglyceride and glycogen storage. to avoid dietary influences, only species able to grow and reproduce on a standard laboratory mediu ... | 2011 | 21293906 |
| strong evidence for lineage and sequence specificity of substitution rates and patterns in drosophila. | rates of single nucleotide substitution in drosophila are highly variable within the genome, and several examples illustrate that evolutionary rates differ among drosophila species as well. here, we use a maximum likelihood method to quantify lineage-specific substitutional patterns and apply this method to 4-fold degenerate synonymous sites and introns from more than 8,000 genes aligned in the drosophila melanogaster group. we find that within species, different classes of sequence evolve at di ... | 2009 | 19351792 |
| the drosulfakinin 0 (dsk 0) peptide encoded in the conserved dsk gene affects adult drosophila melanogaster crop contractions. | we report that the drosulfakinin 0 (dsk 0; nqktmsfnh2) structure and genomic organization are conserved. the dsk 0 c-terminus, sfnh2, is widely distributed in the animal kingdom suggesting it defines a novel peptide family. we also report the first description of dsk 0 activity. dsk 0, i (dsk i, fddyghmrfnh2), and ii (dsk ii, ggddqfddyghmrfnh2) are encoded in sulfakinin (dsk). drosophila erecta, drosophila sechellia, drosophila simulans, and drosophila yakuba shared 62.5-87.5% identity to drosop ... | 2007 | 17632121 |
| evidence for recent horizontal transfer of gypsy-homologous ltr-retrotransposon gtwin into drosophila erecta followed by its amplification with multiple aberrations. | long terminal repeat (ltr) retrotransposon gtwin was initially discovered in silico, and then it was isolated as gypsy-homologous sequence from drosophila melanogaster strain, g32. the presence of orf3 suggests, that gtwin, like gypsy, may be an endogenous retrovirus, which can leave the cell and infect another one. therefore, in this study we decided to investigate the distribution of gtwin in different species of the melanogaster subgroup in order to find out whether gtwin can be transferred h ... | 2007 | 17459613 |
| rapid evolution of outer egg membrane proteins in the drosophila melanogaster subgroup: a case of ecologically driven evolution of female reproductive traits. | although sexual selection has been predominantly used to explain the rapid evolution of sexual traits, eggs of oviparous organisms directly face both the challenges of sexual selection as well as natural selection (environmental challenges, survival in niches, etc.). being the outermost membrane in most insect eggs, the chorion layer is the interface between the embryo and the environment, thereby serving to protect the egg. adaptive ecological radiations such as divergence in ovipositional subs ... | 2007 | 17244601 |
| phylogenetic incongruence in the drosophila melanogaster species group. | drosophila melanogaster and its close relatives are used extensively in comparative biology. despite the importance of phylogenetic information for such studies, relationships between some melanogaster species group members are unclear due to conflicting phylogenetic signals at different loci. in this study, we use twelve nuclear loci (eleven coding and one non-coding) to assess the degree of phylogenetic incongruence in this model system. we focus on two nodes: (1) the node joining the drosophi ... | 2007 | 17071113 |
| rapid evolution of genomic acp complement in the melanogaster subgroup of drosophila. | unusual properties of molecular evolution in reproduction-related drosophila genes, including atypically rapid rates of protein evolution, support the idea that natural selection plays an important role in divergence of reproductive function in drosophila. we used subtractive hybridization to investigate another potential side of evolution of the male reproductive transcriptome. we carried out a screen for genes with much greater transcript abundance in drosophila simulans reproductive tracts th ... | 2005 | 15987879 |
| local changes in gc/at substitution biases and in crossover frequencies on drosophila chromosomes. | i present here evidence of remarkable local changes in gc/at substitution biases and in crossover frequencies on drosophila chromosomes. the substitution pattern at 10 loci in the telomeric region of the x chromosome was studied for four species of the drosophila melanogaster species subgroup. drosophila orena and drosophila erecta are clearly the most closely related species pair (the erecta complex) among the four species studied; however, the overall data at the 10 loci revealed a clear dicho ... | 2001 | 11264413 |
| concerted evolution within a trypsin gene cluster in drosophila. | a cluster of four trypsin genes has previously been localized to cytological position 47d-f of the drosophila melanogaster genome. one of these genes had been sequenced, and the presence of the other three genes was identified by cross-hybridization. here, we present the dna sequence of the entire genomic region encoding these four trypsin genes. in addition to the four previously inferred genes, we have identified a fifth trypsin-coding sequence located within this gene cluster. this new gene s ... | 1999 | 10486967 |
| interspecific comparison of the transformer gene of drosophila reveals an unusually high degree of evolutionary divergence. | the transformer (tra) gene of drosophila melanogaster occupies an intermediate position in the regulatory pathway controlling all aspects of somatic sexual differentiation. the female-specific expression of this gene's function is regulated by the sex lethal (sxl) gene, through a mechanism involving sex-specific alternative splicing of tra pre-mrna. the tra gene encodes a protein that is thought to act in conjunction with the transformer-2 (tra-2) gene product to control the sex-specific process ... | 1992 | 1592233 |
| informational redundancy of trna(4ser) and trna(7ser) genes in drosophila melanogaster and evidence for intergenic recombination. | variant trna genes have been widely observed in multicellular eukaryotes. recent biochemical studies have shown that some of them are expressed in a tissue- or a stage-specific manner. these findings would thus imply that certain modified trnas may be crucial for the development of the organism. using drosophila melanogaster as a model, we have taken a combined genetic and molecular approach to examine critically the possible biological functions of trna(4, 7ser) genes. we showed that at least 5 ... | 1991 | 1903816 |
| concerted evolution of duplicated protein-coding genes in drosophila. | very rapid rates of gene conversion were observed between duplicated alpha-amylase-coding sequences in drosophila melanogaster. this gene conversion process was also seen in the related species drosophila erecta. specifically, there is virtual sequence identity between the coding regions of the two genes within each species, while the sequence divergence between species is close to that expected based on their phylogenetic relationship. the flanking, noncoding regions are much more highly diverg ... | 1991 | 1900365 |
| identical satellite dna sequences in sibling species of drosophila. | the evolution of simple satellite dnas was examined by dna-dna hybridization of ten drosophila melanogaster satellite sequences to dnas of the sibling species, drosophila simulans and drosophila erecta. seven of these repeat types are present in tandem arrays in d. simulans and each of the ten sequences is repeated in d. erecta. in thermal melts, six of the seven satellite sequences in d. simulans and seven of the ten sequences in d. erecta melted within 1 deg.c of the corresponding values in d. ... | 1987 | 3112413 |
| insulin signalling underlies both plasticity and divergence of a reproductive trait in drosophila. | phenotypic plasticity is the ability of a single genotype to yield distinct phenotypes in different environments. the molecular mechanisms linking phenotypic plasticity to the evolution of heritable diversification, however, are largely unknown. here, we show that insulin/insulin-like growth factor signalling (iis) underlies both phenotypic plasticity and evolutionary diversification of ovariole number, a quantitative reproductive trait, in drosophila. iis activity levels and sensitivity have di ... | 2014 | 24500165 |
| evidence for de novo evolution of testis-expressed genes in the drosophila yakuba/drosophila erecta clade. | the mutational origin and subsequent evolution of de novo genes, which are hypothesized to be genes of recent origin that are not obviously related to ancestral coding sequence, are poorly understood. however, accumulating evidence suggests that such genes may often function in male reproduction. here we use testis-derived expressed sequence tags (ests) from drosophila yakuba to identify genes that have likely arisen either in d. yakuba or in the d. yakuba/d. erecta ancestor. we found several su ... | 2007 | 17435230 |
| functional regulatory evolution outside of the minimal even-skipped stripe 2 enhancer. | transcriptional enhancers are regions of dna that drive precise patterns of gene expression. although many studies have elucidated how individual enhancers can evolve, most of this work has focused on what are called 'minimal' enhancers, the smallest dna regions that drive expression that approximates an aspect of native gene expression. here, we explore how the drosophila erecta even-skipped (eve) locus has evolved by testing its activity in the divergent d. melanogaster genome. we found, as ha ... | 2017 | 28760812 |
| significance of constraints on genital coevolution: why do female drosophila appear to cooperate with males by accepting harmful matings? | the mechanisms driving the coevolution of male and female genital morphologies are still debated. female genitalia in drosophila species bear membranous "pouches" or hardened "shields," which the male genital armature contact during copulation. although shield-like structures likely serve to mitigate the effects of harmful mating, some authors have suggested that soft pouches, which do not prevent male genitalia from inflicting wounds, represent a congruent sensory organ. to elucidate the evolut ... | 2016 | 27174423 |
| ancient balancing selection at tan underlies female colour dimorphism in drosophila erecta. | dimorphic traits are ubiquitous in nature, but the evolutionary factors leading to dimorphism are largely unclear. we investigate a potential case of sexual mimicry in drosophila erecta, in which females show contrasting resemblance to males. we map the genetic basis of this sex-limited colour dimorphism to a region containing the gene tan. we find a striking signal of ancient balancing selection at the 'male-specific enhancer' of tan, with exceptionally high sequence divergence between light an ... | 2016 | 26778363 |
| a screen for immunity genes evolving under positive selection in drosophila. | genes involved in the immune system tend to have higher rates of adaptive evolution than other genes in the genome, probably because they are coevolving with pathogens. we have screened a sample of drosophila genes to identify those evolving under positive selection. first, we identified rapidly evolving immunity genes by comparing 140 loci in drosophila erecta and d. yakuba. secondly, we resequenced 23 of the fastest evolving genes from the independent species pair d. melanogaster and d. simula ... | 2007 | 17465907 |
| widespread discordance of gene trees with species tree in drosophila: evidence for incomplete lineage sorting. | the phylogenetic relationship of the now fully sequenced species drosophila erecta and d. yakuba with respect to the d. melanogaster species complex has been a subject of controversy. all three possible groupings of the species have been reported in the past, though recent multi-gene studies suggest that d. erecta and d. yakuba are sister species. using the whole genomes of each of these species as well as the four other fully sequenced species in the subgenus sophophora, we set out to investiga ... | 2006 | 17132051 |