Identifying candidate genes affecting developmental time in Drosophila melanogaster: pervasive pleiotropy and gene-by-environment interaction.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Understanding the genetic architecture of ecologically relevant adaptive traits requires the contribution of developmental and evolutionary biology. The time to reach the age of reproduction is a complex life history trait commonly known as developmental time. In particular, in holometabolous insects that occupy ephemeral habitats, like fruit flies, the impact of developmental time on fitness is further exaggerated. The present work is one of the first systematic studies of the genetic basis of developmental time, in which we also evaluate the impact of environmental variation on the expression of the trait.

Results

We analyzed 179 co-isogenic single P[GT1]-element insertion lines of Drosophila melanogaster to identify novel genes affecting developmental time in f

SUBMITTER: Mensch J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2519079 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature