Rapid evolution of smell and taste receptor genes during host specialization in Drosophila sechellia
- 20 March 2007
- journal article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 104 (12) , 4996-5001
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0608424104
Abstract
Our understanding of the genetic basis of host specialization in insects is limited to basic information on the number and location of genetic factors underlying changes in conspicuous phenotypes. We know nothing about general patterns of molecular evolution that may accompany host specialization but are not traceable to a single prominent phenotypic change. Here, I describe changes in the entire repertoire of 136 olfactory receptor (Or) and gustatory receptor (Gr) genes of the recently specialized vinegar fly Drosophila sechellia. I find that D. sechellia is losing Or and Gr genes nearly 10 times faster than its generalist sibling Drosophila simulans. Moreover, those D. sechellia receptors that remain intact have fixed amino acid replacement mutations at a higher rate relative to silent mutations than have their D. simulans orthologs. Comparison of these patterns with those observed in a random sample of genes indicates that the changes at Or and Gr loci are likely to reflect positive selection and/or relaxed constraint associated with the altered ecological niche of this fly.Keywords
This publication has 38 references indexed in Scilit:
- Olfactory Shifts Parallel Superspecialism for Toxic Fruit in Drosophila melanogaster Sibling, D. sechelliaCurrent Biology, 2006
- THE GENETIC BASIS FOR FRUIT ODOR DISCRIMINATION IN RHAGOLETIS FLIES AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR SYMPATRIC HOST SHIFTSEvolution, 2005
- A comparison of the human and chimpanzee olfactory receptor gene repertoiresGenome Research, 2005
- Evolution of the olfactory code in theDrosophila melanogastersubgroupProceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2003
- Natural Selection on the Olfactory Receptor Gene Family in Humans and ChimpanzeesAmerican Journal of Human Genetics, 2003
- A Novel Family of Divergent Seven-Transmembrane ProteinsNeuron, 1999
- Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST: a new generation of protein database search programsNucleic Acids Research, 1997
- Molecular basis ofMorinda citrifolia (L.): Toxicity on drosophilaJournal of Chemical Ecology, 1994
- Toxicity and attraction effects produced byMorinda citrifolia fruits on theDrosophila melanogaster complex of speciesChemoecology, 1992
- Low allozyme and mtDNA variability in the island endemic speciesDrosophila sechelia (D. melanogaster complex)Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 1990