A trans-acting product needed for P factor transposition in Drosophila

A transposable genetic element of the P family in Drosophila melanogaster was found to be unstable in the presence of other P elements but stable in their absence. A sensitive assay for P transpositional activity is provided by the snw allele, a defective P insert in the singed bristle locus which becomes hypermutable only in the presence of complete elements. This measure of activity was highly correlated with a type of female sterility normally associated with P activity. There was no cross-reactivity with transposase from another hybrid dysgenesis-causing element (the I factor).     

Sperm-female coevolution in Drosophila

Rapid evolution of reproductive traits has been attributed to sexual selection arising from interaction between the sexes. However, little is known about the nature of selection driving the evolution of interacting sex-specific phenotypes. Using populations of Drosophila melanogaster selected for divergent sperm length or female sperm-storage organ length, we experimentally show that male fertilization success is determined by an interaction between sperm and female morphology. In addition, sperm length evolution occurred as a correlated response to selection on the female reproductive tract. Giant sperm tails are the cellular equivalent of the peacock's tail, having evolved because females evolved reproductive tracts that selectively bias paternity in favor of males with longer sperm.     

铃木氏果蝇研究进展

从铃木氏果蝇的分类地位、形态特征、生态习性、入侵及危害、经济损失和防治等几个方面综述了相关研究进展。     

agr-Amanitin Tolerance in Mycophagous Drosophila

Six species of Drosophila were tested for tolerance to the mushroom toxin alpha-amanitin, a potent inhibitor of RNA polymerase II. Three nonmycophagous species-D. melanogaster, D. immigrans, and D. pseudoobscura-showed very low survival and long development times in the presence of amanitin. Three mycophagous species-D. putrida, D. recens, and D. tripunctata-showed little or no sensitivity. Analysis in vitro indicated that this tolerance is not based on alteration of the molecular structure of RNA polymerase II.     

Candidate taste receptors in Drosophila

Little is known about the molecular mechanisms of taste perception in animals, particularly the initial events of taste signaling. A large and diverse family of seven transmembrane domain proteins was identified from the Drosophila genome database with a computer algorithm that identifies proteins on the basis of structure. Eighteen of 19 genes examined were expressed in the Drosophila labellum, a gustatory organ of the proboscis. Expression was not detected in a variety of other tissues. The genes were not expressed in the labellum of a Drosophila mutant, pox-neuro70, in which taste neurons are eliminated. Tissue specificity of expression of these genes, along with their structural similarity, supports the possibility that the family encodes a large and divergent family of taste receptors.     

Exclusive consolidated memory phases in Drosophila

Two types of consolidated memory have been described in Drosophila, anesthesia-resistant memory (ARM), a shorter-lived form, and stabilized long-term memory (LTM). Until now, it has been thought that ARM and LTM coexist. On the contrary, we show that LTM formation leads to the extinction of ARM. Flies devoid of mushroom body vertical lobes cannot form LTM, but spaced conditioning can still erase their ARM, resulting in a remarkable situation: The more these flies are trained, the less they remember. We propose that ARM acts as a gating mechanism that ensures that LTM is formed only after repetitive and spaced training.     

Determination of anteroposterior polarity in Drosophila

The principles of pattern formation in embryogenesis can be studied in Drosophila by means of a powerful combination of genetic and transplantation experiments. The segmented pattern of the Drosophila embryo is organized by two activities localized at the anterior and posterior egg poles. Both activities exert inducing and polarizing effects on the pattern when transplanted to other egg regions. A small set of maternal genes have been identified that are required for these activities. Mutants in these genes lack either the anterior or posterior part of the segmented pattern. The unsegmented terminal embryonic regions require a third class of genes and form independently of the anterior and posterior centers.     

Site-specific recombination between homologous chromosomes in Drosophila

The ability to mark a cell and its descendants genetically so that the resulting cell clone can be distinguished from neighboring cells facilitates studies in animal biology and development. A method of generating clones by inducing homologous mitotic recombination in Drosophila with a site-specific yeast recombinase is described. This method allows for frequent mosaicism after mitotic exchange is induced at predefined sites in the genome.     

New genes in Drosophila quickly become essential

To investigate the origin and evolution of essential genes, we identified and phenotyped 195 young protein-coding genes, which originated 3 to 35 million years ago in Drosophila. Knocking down expression with RNA interference showed that 30% of newly arisen genes are essential for viability. The proportion of genes that are essential is similar in every evolutionary age group that we examined. Under constitutive silencing of these young essential genes, lethality was high in the pupal stage and also found in the larval stages. Lethality was attributed to diverse cellular and developmental defects, such as organ formation and patterning defects. These data suggest that new genes frequently and rapidly evolve essential functions and participate in development.     

A cost of long-term memory in Drosophila

Two distinct forms of consolidated associative memory are known in Drosophila: long-term memory and so-called anesthesia-resistant memory. Long-term memory is more stable, but unlike anesthesia-resistant memory, its formation requires protein synthesis. We show that flies induced to form long-term memory become more susceptible to extreme stress (such as desiccation). In contrast, induction of anesthesia-resistant memory had no detectable effect on desiccation resistance. This finding may help to explain why evolution has maintained anesthesia-resistant memory as another form of consolidated memory, distinct from long-term memory.     

Gene targeting by homologous recombination in Drosophila

Drosophila offers many advantages as an experimental organism. However, in comparison with yeast and mouse, two other widely used eukaryotic model systems, Drosophila suffers from an inability to perform homologous recombination between introduced DNA and the corresponding chromosomal loci. The ability to specifically modify the genomes of yeast and mouse provides a quick and easy way to generate or rescue mutations in genes for which a DNA clone or sequence is available. A method is described that enables analogous manipulations of the Drosophila genome. This technique may also be applicable to other organisms for which gene-targeting procedures do not yet exist.     

Function of rhodopsin in temperature discrimination in Drosophila

Many animals, including the fruit fly, are sensitive to small differences in ambient temperature. The ability of Drosophila larvae to choose their ideal temperature (18°C) over other comfortable temperatures (19° to 24°C) depends on a thermosensory signaling pathway that includes a heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding protein (G protein), a phospholipase C, and the transient receptor potential TRPA1 channel. We report that mutation of the gene (ninaE) encoding a classical G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), Drosophila rhodopsin, eliminates thermotactic discrimination in the comfortable temperature range. This role for rhodopsin in thermotaxis toward 18°C was light-independent. Introduction of mouse melanopsin restored normal thermotactic behavior in ninaE mutant larvae. We propose that rhodopsins represent a class of evolutionarily conserved GPCRs that are required for initiating thermosensory signaling cascades.     

Maternally inherited transposon excision in Drosophila simulans

A mutation in the white gene of Drosophila mauritiana resulting from insertion of the transposable element mariner exhibits genetic instability in germline and somatic cells. The instability is greatly enhanced in the presence of the trans-acting autosomal factor Mos, giving eye-color mosaics with pigmented sectors of tissue on an otherwise peach-colored background. The Mos factor, when introduced into the genome of the sibling species Drosophila simulans, exhibited a dramatic maternal effect on expression of the mosaic phenotype. When D. simulans mosaic females (heterozygous for Mos) were crossed with non-mosaic males, two distinct classes of mosaic offspring occurred, one resulting from a maternal effect in which the non-Mos offspring were nevertheless mosaic. The maternal effect was mediated by a product acting after fertilization, and was expressed to varying extents in different backcross strains.     

Patterns of alkaline phosphatase in developing Drosophila

Electrophoretic study of alkaline phosphatase in developing Drosophila shows that different stages are characterized by the appearance and disappearance of organ-specific enzyme bands. A new electrophoretic variant, from adult hindgut, is controlled by the second chromosome locus Aph-2.     

Testis-specific and sex-associated hexokinases in Drosophila melanogaster

Hexokinases of Drosophila melanogaster were investigated by starchgel electrophoresis. A hexokinase is present in both sexes during earlier stages of development, but it persists only in male adults. In addition, in this species there is a testis-specific hexokinase which is first observed during the pupal period.     

Environmental factors influencing progeny yields in Drosophila

Progeny counts in Drosophila melanogaster were found to be correlated with barometric pressures. Addition of a sublethal chemical to the culture produced a higher correlation coefficient, whereas growth of the culture in an electric field reduced the correlation well below the level of significance. The electric field appeared to have a protective action.     

Outward currents in developing Drosophila flight muscle

The development of two different voltage-sensitive potassium channels was studied in Drosophila flight muscle by voltage clamp techniques. Early in development active channels are not present in the membrane. The first channels to appear are the A current channels, which carry a fast, rapidly inactivating potassium current. The channels for delayed rectification appear later. Channels carrying inward current also appear only after the A current channels. During development, the A current may be easily studied in isolation from other currents and thus provides a desirable system for studying the genetic determinants of this current.     

Bicoid-independent formation of thoracic segments in Drosophila

The maternal determinant Bicoid (Bcd) represents the paradigm of a morphogen that provides positional information for pattern formation. However, as bicoid seems to be a recently acquired gene in flies, the question was raised as to how embryonic patterning is achieved in organisms with more ancestral modes of development. Because the phylogenetically conserved Hunchback (Hb) protein had previously been shown to act as a morphogen in abdominal patterning, we asked which functions of Bcd could be performed by Hb. By reestablishing a proposed ancient regulatory circuitry in which maternal Hb controls zygotic hunchback expression, we show that Hb is able to form thoracic segments in the absence of Bcd.