Choosing mates based on the diet of your ancestors: replication of non-genetic assortative mating in Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: Assortative mating has been a focus of considerable research because of its potential to influence biodiversity at many scales. Sharon et al. (2010) discovered that an inbred strain of Drosophila melanogaster mated assortatively based on the diet of previous generations, leading to initial reproductive isolation without genetic evolution. This behavior was reproduced by manipulating the microbiome independently of the diet, pointing to extracellular bacterial symbionts as the assortative mating cue. To further investigate the biological significance of this result, we attempted to reproduce this phenomenon in an independent laboratory using different genotypes and additional mating assays. Supporting the previous result, we found that a different inbred strain also mated assortatively base

SUBMITTER: Najarro MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4558060 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature