Does Drosophila sechellia escape parasitoid attack by feeding on a toxic resource?

ABSTRACT: Host shifts can drastically change the selective pressures that animals experience from their environment. Drosophila sechellia is a species restricted to the Seychelles islands, where it specializes on the fruit Morinda citrifolia (noni). This fruit is known to be toxic to closely related Drosophila species, including D. melanogaster and D. simulans, releasing D. sechellia from interspecific competition when breeding on this substrate. Previously, we showed that larvae of D. sechellia are unable to mount an effective immunological response against wasp attack, while larvae of closely-related species can defend themselves from parasitoid attack by melanotic encapsulation. We hypothesized that this inability constitutes a trait loss due to a

SUBMITTER: Salazar-Jaramillo L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7796662 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature