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PloS One 2022Drosophila saltans group belongs to the subgenus Sophophora (family Drosophilidae), and it is subdivided into five subgroups, with 23 species. The species in this group...
Drosophila saltans group belongs to the subgenus Sophophora (family Drosophilidae), and it is subdivided into five subgroups, with 23 species. The species in this group are widely distributed in the Americas, primarily in the Neotropics. In the literature, the phylogenetic reconstruction of this group has been performed with various markers, but many inconsistencies remain. Here, we present a phylogenetic reconstruction of the saltans group with a greater number of species, 16 species, which is the most complete to date for the saltans group and includes all subgroups, in a combined analysis with morphological and molecular markers. We incorporated 48 morphological characters of male terminalia, the highest number used to date, and molecular markers based on mitochondrial genes COI and COII. Based on the results, which have recovered the five subgroups as distinct lineages, we propose a new hypothesis regarding the phylogenetic relationships among the subgroups of the saltans group. The relationships of the species within the sturtevanti and elliptica subgroups were well supported. The saltans subgroup showed several polytomies, but the relationship between the sibling species D. austrosaltans and D. saltans and their close relation with D. nigrosaltans were well supported in the molecular and total evidence analyses. The morphological analysis additionally supported the formation of the clade D. nigrosaltans-D. pseudosaltans. The observed polytomies may represent synchronous radiations or have resulted from speciation rates that have been too fast relative to the pace of substitution accumulation.
Topics: Animals; Drosophila; Drosophilidae; Genes, Mitochondrial; Male; Phylogeny
PubMed: 35390108
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266710 -
Current Biology : CB Nov 2022Aggression is an adaptive set of behaviors that allows animals to compete against one another in an environment of limited resources. Typically, males fight for mates...
Aggression is an adaptive set of behaviors that allows animals to compete against one another in an environment of limited resources. Typically, males fight for mates and food, whereas females fight for food and nest sites. Although the study of male aggression has been facilitated by the extravagant nature of the ritualized displays involved and the remarkable armaments sported by males of many species, the subtler and rarer instances of inter-female aggression have historically received much less attention. In Drosophila, females display high levels of complex and highly structured aggression on a food patch with conspecific females. Other contexts of female aggression have not been explored. Indeed, whether females compete for mating partners, as males do, has remained unknown so far. In the present work, we report that Drosophila melanogaster females reliably display aggression toward mating pairs. This aggressive behavior is regulated by mating status and perception of mating opportunities and relies heavily on olfaction. Furthermore, we found that food odor in combination with OR47b-dependent fly odor sensing is required for proper expression of aggressive behavior. Taken together, we describe a social context linked to reproduction in which Drosophila females aspiring to mate produce consistent and stereotyped displays of aggression. These findings open the door for further inquiries into the neural mechanisms that govern this behavior.
Topics: Animals; Female; Male; Drosophila melanogaster; Drosophila; Reproduction; Aggression; Smell; Sexual Behavior, Animal
PubMed: 36167074
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.009 -
PLoS Biology Jun 2023Sensory perception modulates aging, yet we know little about how. An understanding of the neuronal mechanisms through which animals orchestrate biological responses to...
Sensory perception modulates aging, yet we know little about how. An understanding of the neuronal mechanisms through which animals orchestrate biological responses to relevant sensory inputs would provide insight into the control systems that may be important for modulating lifespan. Here, we provide new awareness into how the perception of dead conspecifics, or death perception, which elicits behavioral and physiological effects in many different species, affects lifespan in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Previous work demonstrated that cohousing Drosophila with dead conspecifics decreases fat stores, reduces starvation resistance, and accelerates aging in a manner that requires both sight and the serotonin receptor 5-HT2A. In this manuscript, we demonstrate that a discrete, 5-HT2A-expressing neural population in the ellipsoid body (EB) of the Drosophila central complex, identified as R2/R4 neurons, acts as a rheostat and plays an important role in transducing sensory information about the presence of dead individuals to modulate lifespan. Expression of the insulin-responsive transcription factor foxo in R2/R4 neurons and insulin-like peptides dilp3 and dilp5, but not dilp2, are required, with the latter likely altered in median neurosecretory cells (MNCs) after R2/R4 neuronal activation. These data generate new insights into the neural underpinnings of how perceptive events may impact aging and physiology across taxa.
Topics: Animals; Drosophila; Drosophila melanogaster; Aging; Neurons; Insulin
PubMed: 37310911
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002149 -
ELife Oct 2021Studying neurons and their connections in the central complex of the fruit fly reveals new insights into how their structure and function shape perception and behavior.
Studying neurons and their connections in the central complex of the fruit fly reveals new insights into how their structure and function shape perception and behavior.
Topics: Animals; Brain; Drosophila; Drosophila melanogaster; Neurons
PubMed: 34696825
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.73963 -
PloS One 2022The schizophoran superfamily Ephydroidea (Diptera: Cyclorrhapha) includes eight families, ranging from the well-known vinegar flies (Drosophilidae) and shore flies...
The schizophoran superfamily Ephydroidea (Diptera: Cyclorrhapha) includes eight families, ranging from the well-known vinegar flies (Drosophilidae) and shore flies (Ephydridae), to several small, relatively unusual groups, the phylogenetic placement of which has been particularly challenging for systematists. An extraordinary diversity in life histories, feeding habits and morphology are a hallmark of fly biology, and the Ephydroidea are no exception. Extreme specialization can lead to "orphaned" taxa with no clear evidence for their phylogenetic position. To resolve relationships among a diverse sample of Ephydroidea, including the highly modified flies in the families Braulidae and Mormotomyiidae, we conducted phylogenomic sampling. Using exon capture from Anchored Hybrid Enrichment and transcriptomics to obtain 320 orthologous nuclear genes sampled for 32 species of Ephydroidea and 11 outgroups, we evaluate a new phylogenetic hypothesis for representatives of the superfamily. These data strongly support monophyly of Ephydroidea with Ephydridae as an early branching radiation and the placement of Mormotomyiidae as a family-level lineage sister to all remaining families. We confirm placement of Cryptochetidae as sister taxon to a large clade containing both Drosophilidae and Braulidae-the latter a family of honeybee ectoparasites. Our results reaffirm that sampling of both taxa and characters is critical in hyperdiverse clades and that these factors have a major influence on phylogenomic reconstruction of the history of the schizophoran fly radiation.
Topics: Acetic Acid; Animals; Drosophilidae; Phylogeny
PubMed: 36197946
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274292 -
ELife Oct 2019A new study upturns the long-held belief that the gene determines sex-specific behaviors in fruit flies by acting in the brain.
A new study upturns the long-held belief that the gene determines sex-specific behaviors in fruit flies by acting in the brain.
Topics: Animals; Drosophila; Drosophila Proteins; Drosophila melanogaster; Female; Male; Reproduction; Sexual Behavior, Animal
PubMed: 31612861
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.51746 -
Anais Da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias 2016Drosophilidae is one of the most representative families of insects that occurs in fungal fruiting bodies of Basidiomycetes; however, the diversity and community...
Drosophilidae is one of the most representative families of insects that occurs in fungal fruiting bodies of Basidiomycetes; however, the diversity and community structure of mycophagous Drosophilidae in the Neotropical region is poorly known. The aims of the present study were to describe the diversity of mycophagous Drosophilidae and to investigate its colonization of fungal hosts in a forest of southern Brazil. From 120 fungal samples (patches of mushrooms) of 17 Basidiomycetes genera, flies were recorded emerging from 70 samples and collected in adult stages of 25 fungal samples, for a total of 4897 drosophilids belonging to 31 species and 5 genera. Drosophila Fallén was the most species-rich genus, whereas Hirtodrosophila Duda was the dominant genus. Studies performed in the Holarctic region indicate that mycophagous drosophilid have generalist habits; however, our results showed that most drosophilids use fewer than two fungal hosts, and most species of Hirtodrosophila and Leucophenga were restricted to abundant fungal species, suggesting a specialization for these resources. The most specialized fauna emerged from Auricularia, which was the most frequent fungal genus in our collection, and this result supports the assumption that specialization depends on the availability of fungal resources over time.
Topics: Animals; Basidiomycota; Brazil; Drosophila; Forests
PubMed: 27142546
DOI: 10.1590/0001-3765201620150366 -
Fly Jan 2017Only two parasite interactions are known for Drosophila to date: Allantonematid nematodes associated with mycophagous Drosophilids and the ectoparasitic mite Macrocheles...
Only two parasite interactions are known for Drosophila to date: Allantonematid nematodes associated with mycophagous Drosophilids and the ectoparasitic mite Macrocheles subbadius with the Sonoran Desert endemic Drosophila nigrospiracula. Unlike the nematode-Drosophila association, breadth of mite parasitism on Drosophila species is unknown. As M. subbadius is a generalist, parasitism of additional Drosophilids is expected. We determined the extent and distribution of mite parasitism in nature Drosophilids collected in Mexico and southern California. Thirteen additional species of Drosophilids were infested. Interestingly, 10 belong to the repleta species group of the subgenus Drosophila, despite the fact that the majority of flies collected were of the subgenus Sophophora. In all cases but 2, the associated mites were M. subbadius. Drosophila hexastigma was found to have not only M. subbadius, but another Mesostigmatid mite, Paragarmania bakeri, as well. One D. hydei was also found to have a mite from genus Lasioseius attached. In both choice and no-choice experiments, mites were more attracted to repleta group species than to Sophophoran. The extent of mite parasitism clearly is much broader than previously reported and suggests a host bias mediated either by mite preference and/or some mechanism of resistance in particular Drosophilid lineages.
Topics: Animals; California; Drosophila; Host-Parasite Interactions; Mexico; Mites
PubMed: 27540774
DOI: 10.1080/19336934.2016.1222998 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Dec 2023The decision to stop growing and mature into an adult is a critical point in development that determines adult body size, impacting multiple aspects of an adult's...
The decision to stop growing and mature into an adult is a critical point in development that determines adult body size, impacting multiple aspects of an adult's biology. In many animals, growth cessation is a consequence of hormone release that appears to be tied to the attainment of a particular body size or condition. Nevertheless, the size-sensing mechanism animals use to initiate hormone synthesis is poorly understood. Here, we develop a simple mathematical model of growth cessation in , which is ostensibly triggered by the attainment of a critical weight (CW) early in the last instar. Attainment of CW is correlated with the synthesis of the steroid hormone ecdysone, which causes a larva to stop growing, pupate, and metamorphose into the adult form. Our model suggests that, contrary to expectation, the size-sensing mechanism that initiates metamorphosis occurs before the larva reaches CW; that is, the critical-weight phenomenon is a downstream consequence of an earlier size-dependent developmental decision, not a decision point itself. Further, this size-sensing mechanism does not require a direct assessment of body size but emerges from the interactions between body size, ecdysone, and nutritional signaling. Because many aspects of our model are evolutionarily conserved among all animals, the model may provide a general framework for understanding how animals commit to maturing from their juvenile to adult form.
Topics: Animals; Drosophila; Drosophila melanogaster; Ecdysone; Body Size; Drosophila Proteins; Larva; Metamorphosis, Biological
PubMed: 38015844
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2313224120 -
PLoS Pathogens May 2023Interactions between coinfecting pathogens have the potential to alter the course of infection and can act as a source of phenotypic variation in susceptibility between...
Interactions between coinfecting pathogens have the potential to alter the course of infection and can act as a source of phenotypic variation in susceptibility between hosts. This phenotypic variation may influence the evolution of host-pathogen interactions within host species and interfere with patterns in the outcomes of infection across host species. Here, we examine experimental coinfections of two Cripaviruses-Cricket Paralysis Virus (CrPV), and Drosophila C Virus (DCV)-across a panel of 25 Drosophila melanogaster inbred lines and 47 Drosophilidae host species. We find that interactions between these viruses alter viral loads across D. melanogaster genotypes, with a ~3 fold increase in the viral load of DCV and a ~2.5 fold decrease in CrPV in coinfection compared to single infection, but we find little evidence of a host genetic basis for these effects. Across host species, we find no evidence of systematic changes in susceptibility during coinfection, with no interaction between DCV and CrPV detected in the majority of host species. These results suggest that phenotypic variation in coinfection interactions within host species can occur independently of natural host genetic variation in susceptibility, and that patterns of susceptibility across host species to single infections can be robust to the added complexity of coinfection.
Topics: Animals; Drosophila melanogaster; Coinfection; Host Specificity; Dicistroviridae; Host-Pathogen Interactions
PubMed: 37216391
DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011044