The ontogeny of color: developmental origins of divergent pigmentation in Drosophila americana and D. novamexicana.

ABSTRACT: Pigmentation is a model trait for evolutionary and developmental analysis that is particularly amenable to molecular investigation in the genus Drosophila. To better understand how this phenotype evolves, we examined divergent pigmentation and gene expression over developmental time in the dark-bodied D. americana and its light-bodied sister species D. novamexicana. Prior genetic analysis implicated two enzyme-encoding genes, tan and ebony, in pigmentation divergence between these species, but questions remain about the underlying molecular mechanisms. Here, we describe stages of pupal development in both species and use this staging to determine when pigmentation develops and diverges between D. americana and D. novamexicana. For the developmental stages encompassing pigment divergence, w

SUBMITTER: Cooley AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3402224 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature