Purification and Biochemical Properties of the Drosophila TAC1 Complex

Five morphometrical traits (wing and thoraxlength, ovariole number, and thoracic and female abdomen pigmentation) were investigated in laboratory stocks of 20 species belonging to the Drosophila obscura group (subgenus Sophophora). These species originated from four biogeographical regions and represent all five of the presently recognized, taxonomic subgroups. Size-related traits (wing and thorax length) were highly variable across species, and interspecific variation explained more than 90% of total variability. In both traditional and phylogenetic analyses, wing size was positively correlated with latitude of origin. These interspecific correlations were however notably weaker than those for intraspecific correlations. Wing/thoraxratio, which may be related to flight capacity, showed little variation. Ovariole number was highly variabl e (range 27–53) both within and between species, and was positively correlated with the wing/thoraxratio, suggesting that species with relatively large ovaries have relatively low wing loading. Although many species are completely dark, 11 had some regions of light coloration. A light thoraxwith a median darkening was observed in sixspecies. A variable pigmentation of abdominal tergites, in females only, was found in nine species, belonging to three subgroups only. With respect to both molecular phylogeny and morphometrical evolution, the D. obscura subgroup is probably now the best investigated clade in Drosophila.

10.1046/j.1439-0469.2003.00195.x

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Citations (28)

Genetic Divergence in Closely Related Sibling Species Drosophila pseudoobscura, Drosophila persimilis and Drosophila miranda

Evolution (1977)

Satya Prakash

Drosophila pseudoobscura

Sibling species

Genetic divergence

Divergence (linguistics)

10.2307/2407540

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Citations (15)

Genetic and phenotypic differentiation suggests incipient speciation within Drosophila arizonae (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (2017)

Augusto Santos Rampasso Therese A. Markow Maxi Polihronakis Richmond

The cactophilic sister species Drosophila arizonae and Drosophila mojavensis, distributed across southwestern USA, Mexico and Guatemala, constitute a well-suited model to study ecology, genetic divergence and speciation. Although D. arizonae is the more broadly distributed of the two, its evolutionary biology has been less intensively investigated than D. mojavensis. Given the important role of genitalic variation in reproductive isolation, we explored the relationship between male aedeagus morphology and genetic differentiation of geographically distinct strains of D. arizonae. We used mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I sequence data to establish the phylogenetic relationships among different D. arizonae strains and compared morphological variation, using elliptic Fourier descriptors, among five populations. Our results indicate that the Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, population may be at the early stages of lineage divergence. Tuxtla Gutiérrez was the only locality sampled south of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, both of which have been implicated as gene flow barriers in other organisms. Our results suggest that D. arizonae is an emerging model system for studies of incipient speciation.

Genetic algorithm

Incipient speciation

10.1093/biolinnean/blx073

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Citations (5)