Gene duplication and adaptive evolution of digestive proteases in Drosophila arizonae female reproductive tracts.

ABSTRACT: It frequently has been postulated that intersexual coevolution between the male ejaculate and the female reproductive tract is a driving force in the rapid evolution of reproductive proteins. The dearth of research on female tracts, however, presents a major obstacle to empirical tests of this hypothesis. Here, we employ a comparative EST approach to identify 241 candidate female reproductive proteins in Drosophila arizonae, a repleta group species in which physiological ejaculate-female coevolution has been documented. Thirty-one of these proteins exhibit elevated amino acid substitution rates, making them candidates for molecular coevolution with the male ejaculate. Strikingly, we also discovered 12 unique digestive proteases whose expression is specific to the D. arizonae lower female r

SUBMITTER: Kelleher ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1959364 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature