Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2020
Department
Department of Biological Sciences
Abstract
To understand how novel animal body colorations emerged, one needs to ask how the development of color patterns differs among closely related species. Here we examine three species of fruit flies – Drosophila guttifera (D. guttifera), D. palustris, and D. subpalustris – displaying a varying number of abdominal spot rows. Through in situ hybridization experiments, we examine the mRNA expression patterns for the pigmentation genes Dopa decarboxylase (Ddc), tan (t), and yellow (y) during pupal development. Our results show that Ddc, t, and y are co-expressed in modular, identical patterns, each foreshadowing the adult abdominal spots in D. guttifera, D. palustris, and D. subpalustris. We suggest that differences in the expression patterns of these three genes partially underlie the morphological diversity of the quinaria species group.
Publication Title
Gene Expression Patterns
Recommended Citation
Dion, W. A.,
Shittu, M.,
Steenwinkel, T.,
Raja, K.,
Kokate, P.,
&
Werner, T.
(2020).
The modular expression patterns of three pigmentation genes prefigure unique abdominal morphologies seen among three Drosophila species.
Gene Expression Patterns,
38.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.gep.2020.119132
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/2618
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gep.2020.119132