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Genetics of divergence in male wing pigmentation and courtship behavior between Drosophila elegans and D. gunungcola.

Many sex-specific traits involved in mating consist of functionally coordinated morphologies and behaviors. How the components of these complex traits evolve and become coordinated during evolution is unknown. In order to understand how such trait complexes evolve and diversify, we must decipher the genetic underpinnings of their components. In this study, we begin to elucidate the genetic architecture underlying differences in functionally related male pigmentation and behavior between two Asian Drosophila melanogaster group species, D. elegans and D. gunungcola. D. elegans possesses a male-specific wing melanin spot and a stereotypical wing display element in male courtship, whereas D. gunungcola lacks both of these traits. Using reciprocal F1 male hybrids, we demonstrate that the X-chromosome contains a major locus or loci required for wing spot formation and that autosomal loci largely determine the male courtship display. Using phenotypic and genetic analysis of backcross progeny, we further demonstrate that both the wing spot and courtship differences between the two species are polygenic and both depend at least in small part on genetic factors on both the X and the autosomes. Finally, we find that male wing spot size and courtship wing display are highly correlated in backcross progeny, suggesting that linkage or pleiotropy may have been involved in their coordinated evolution.

Animals↗

Adaptation and constraint in the evolution of Drosophila melanogaster wing shape.

We have taken advantage of parallel instances of natural selection on body size in Drosophila melanogaster to investigate constraints and adaptation affecting wing shape. Using recently developed techniques for statistical shape analysis, we have examined variation in wing shape in similar body size clines on three continents. Gender-related shape differences were constant among all populations, suggesting that gender differences represent a developmental constraint on wing shape. In contrast, the underlying shape varied significantly between continents and shape change within each cline (i.e., between small and large body size populations) also varied between continents. Therefore, variation at these two levels presumably results from either drift or natural selection. Functional considerations suggest that shape variation between the continents is unlikely to be adaptive. However, cline-related shape change, which we show has a significant allometric component, may be adaptive. The overall range of wing shape variation, across a large range of wing size, is extremely small, and the possibility that wing shape is subject to stabilizing selection (or canalization) is discussed.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Linkage of butterfly mate preference and wing color preference cue at the genomic location of wingless.

Sexual isolation is a critical form of reproductive isolation in the early stages of animal speciation, yet little is known about the genetic basis of divergent mate preferences and preference cues in young species. Heliconius butterflies, well known for their diversity of wing color patterns, mate assortatively as a result of divergence in male preference for wing patterns. Here we show that the specific cue used by Heliconius cydno and Heliconius pachinus males to recognize conspecific females is the color of patches on the wings. In addition, male mate preference segregates with forewing color in hybrids, indicating a genetic association between the loci responsible for preference and preference cue. Quantitative trait locus mapping places a preference locus coincident with the locus that determines forewing color, which itself is perfectly linked to the wing patterning candidate gene, wingless. Furthermore, yellow-colored males of the polymorphic race H. cydno alithea prefer to court yellow females, indicating that wing color and color preference are controlled by loci that are located in an inversion or are pleiotropic effects of a single locus. Tight genetic associations between preference and preference cue, although rare, make divergence and speciation particularly likely because the effects of natural and sexual selection on one trait are transferred to the other, leading to the coordinated evolution of mate recognition. This effect of linkage on divergence is especially important in Heliconius because differentiation of wing color patterns in the genus has been driven and maintained by natural selection for Müllerian mimicry.

Animals↗

Determining the role of patterned cell proliferation in the shape and size of the Drosophila wing.

The present work is a detailed analysis of the numerical and positional parameters of cell proliferation in all of the derivatives of the wing disk. We have made use of twin clones resulting from mitotic recombination events at three different ages of development. The interfaces between twin clones indicate the relative position in the anlage of the mother cells. Interface types vary with age of clone initiation and with wing regions. They are indicative of the main allocation of postmitotic cells of the growing clones. Growth is exponential and intercalar, i.e., the progeny of ancestor cells becomes more and more separated. Clones are compact, indicating that daughter cells tend to remain side by side. The shape of the clones is wing region characteristic. Subpopulations of cells grow preferentially along veins and wing margins and show characteristic shapes in different pleural regions. The shape and size of the adult wing regions largely depend on the shape of clones and hence of the allocation of successive rounds of daughter cells. The role of mitogenic morphogens in wing size and shape is discussed.

Animals↗

Hypothesis testing in evolutionary developmental biology: a case study from insect wings.

Developmental data have the potential to give novel insights into morphological evolution. Because developmental data are time-consuming to obtain, support for hypotheses often rests on data from only a few distantly related species. Similarities between these distantly related species are parsimoniously inferred to represent ancestral aspects of development. However, with limited taxon sampling, ancestral similarities in developmental patterning can be difficult to distinguish from similarities that result from convergent co-option of developmental networks, which appears to be common in developmental evolution. Using a case study from insect wings, we discuss how these competing explanations for similarity can be evaluated. Two kinds of developmental data have recently been used to support the hypothesis that insect wings evolved by modification of limb branches that were present in ancestral arthropods. This support rests on the assumption that aspects of wing development in Drosophila, including similarities to crustacean epipod patterning, are ancestral for winged insects. Testing this assumption requires comparisons of wing development in Drosophila and other winged insects. Here we review data that bear on this assumption, including new data on the functions of wingless and decapentaplegic during appendage allocation in the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum.

Animals↗

Pterin pigment granules are responsible for both broadband light scattering and wavelength selective absorption in the wing scales of pierid butterflies.

A small but growing literature indicates that many animal colours are produced by combinations of structural and pigmentary mechanisms. We investigated one such complex colour phenotype: the highly chromatic wing colours of pierid butterflies including oranges, yellows and patterns which appear white to the human eye, but strongly absorb the ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths visible to butterflies. Pierids produce these bright colours using wing scales that contain collections of minute granules. However, to date, no work has directly characterized the molecular composition or optical properties of these granules. We present results that indicate these granules contain pterin pigments. We also find that pterin granules increase light reflection from single wing scales, such that wing scales containing denser granule arrays reflect more light than those with less dense granule collections. As male wing scales contain more pterin granules than those of females, the sexual dichromatism found in many pierid species can be explained by differences in wing scale pterin deposition. Additionally, the colour pattern elements produced by these pterins are known to be important during mating interactions in a number of pierid species. Therefore, we discuss the potential relevance of our results within the framework of sexual selection and colour signal evolution.

Absorption↗

The evolution of wing color in Colias butterflies: heritability, sex linkage, and population divergence.

We investigated the genetic background of intraspecific variation in wing color across an elevational gradient in the butterfly Colias philodice eriphyle. The degree of wing melanization was an accelerating function of elevation, and differences in wing melanization persisted in a common environment. Full-sibling analysis and parent-offspring regression yielded consistent, moderate to high heritabilities for the degree of wing melanization. The breeding experiments also demonstrated that wing melanization is strongly sex linked. Because traits that differentiate sister species also tend to be sex linked, our results suggest that the genetic mechanisms underlying intraspecific differences in wing melanization are not fundamentally different from those that have been shown to differentiate sister species.

Analysis of Variance↗

Evolutionary redeployment of a biosynthetic module: expression of eye pigment genes vermilion, cinnabar, and white in butterfly wing development.

Ommochromes are common among insects as visual pigments; however, in some insect lineages ommochromes have evolved novel functions such as integument coloration and tryptophan secretion. One role of ommochromes, as butterfly wing pigments, can apparently be traced to a single origin in the family Nymphalidae. The synthesis and storage of ommochrome pigments is a complex process that requires the concerted activity of multiple enzyme and transporter molecules. To help understand how this subcellular process appeared in a novel context during evolution, we explored aspects of ommochrome pigment development in the wings of the nymphalid butterfly Vanessa cardui. Using chromatography and radiolabeled precursor incorporation studies we identified the ommochrome xanthommatin as a V. cardui wing pigment. We cloned fragments of two ommochrome enzyme genes, vermilion and cinnabar, and an ommochrome precursor transporter gene, white, and found that these genes were transcribed in wing tissue at relatively high levels during wing scale development. Unexpectedly, however, the spatial patterns of transcription were not associated in a simple way with adult pigment patterns. Although our results suggest that the evolution of ommochrome synthesis in butterfly wings likely arose in part through novel regulation of vermilion, cinnabar, and white transcription, they also point to a complex relationship between transcriptional prepatterns and pigment synthesis in V. cardui.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Further observations on the site of bone prospective areas in the chick embryo wing bud.

The portion of the pre-axial region of the wing bud anterior to the cranial boundary of the skeletogenous territory of the stylo-zeugopod, according to Stark and Searls' recent maps, was surgically isolated in chicken embryos of the stages 18-25, and autoplastically grafted to the dorsal surface of the hind-limb bud or to the trunk. In other embryos of the same stages the cranial half or the cranial two thirds of the pre-axial region mentioned were isolated and heterotopically implanted. The experimental results consistently showed that the isolate contained a variously large portion of the presumptive radius and a significant part of the proximal half of the prospective humerus. In fact, the skeletal parts mentioned did not develop in situ in the donor wing while they differentiated, in general, in the implantation site. In this regard, the present research confirms data from previous experiments showing that Stark and Searls' maps do not offer an accurate representation of the position and the cranio-caudal width of the presumptive areas of the skeletal pieces of the wing. Our findings seem also to indicate that the major (or longitudinal) axis of the future radius is arranged along the proximodistal axis of the wing bud throughout the developmental stages mentioned; instead, the major axis of the future humerus undergoes a gradual shift, being first (stages 18-20) arranged nearly parallel to the bud base and getting more and more parallel to the proximo-distal axis of the wing bud through stages 21-24. Besides, between stage 18 and 25 the cranio-caudal width of the presumptive skeletogenous territory of the zeugopod, and to a lesser extent of the stylopod, seems to undergo a slight relative reduction with respect to the cranio-caudal thickness of the whole wing bud; this might depend on a process of aggregation of the prospective skeletogenous cells into gradually denser and more defined precartilaginous blastemes.

Animals↗

Integrins modulate Sog activity in the Drosophila wing.

Morphogenesis of the Drosophila wing depends on a series of cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. During pupal wing development, two secreted proteins, encoded by the short gastrulation (sog) and decapentaplegic (dpp) genes, vie to position wing veins in the center of broad provein territories. Expression of the Bmp4 homolog dpp in vein cells is counteracted by expression of the Bmp antagonist sog in intervein cells, which results in the formation of straight veins of precise width. We screened for genetic interactions between sog and genes encoding a variety of extracellular components and uncovered interactions between sog and myospheroid (mys), multiple edematous wing (mew) and scab (scb), which encode betaPS, alphaPS1 and alphaPS3 integrin subunits, respectively. Clonal analysis reveals that integrin mutations affect the trajectory of veins inside the provein domain and/or their width and that misexpression of sog can alter the behavior of cells in such clones. In addition, we show that a low molecular weight form of Sog protein binds to alphaPS1betaPS. We find that Sog can diffuse from its intervein site of production into adjacent provein domains, but only on the dorsal surface of the wing, where Sog interacts functionally with integrins. Finally, we show that Sog diffusion into provein regions and the reticular pattern of extracellular Sog distribution in wild-type wings requires mys and mew function. We propose that integrins act by binding and possibly regulating the activity/availability of different forms of Sog during pupal development through an adhesion independent mechanism.

Animals↗

Multiple signaling pathways and a selector protein sequentially regulate Drosophila wing development.

Drosophila wing development is a useful model to study organogenesis, which requires the input of selector genes that specify the identity of various morphogenetic fields (Weatherbee, S. D. and Carroll, S. B. (1999) Cell 97, 283-286) and cell signaling molecules. In order to understand how the integration of multiple signaling pathways and selector proteins can be achieved during wing development, we studied the regulatory network that controls the expression of Serrate (Ser), a ligand for the Notch (N) signaling pathway, which is essential for the development of the Drosophila wing, as well as vertebrate limbs. Here, we show that a 794 bp cis-regulatory element located in the 3' region of the Ser gene can recapitulate the dynamic patterns of endogenous Ser expression during wing development. Using this enhancer element, we demonstrate that Apterous (Ap, a selector protein), and the Notch and Wingless (Wg) signaling pathways, can sequentially control wing development through direct regulation of Ser expression in early, mid and late third instar stages, respectively. In addition, we show that later Ser expression in the presumptive vein cells is controlled by the Egfr pathway. Thus, a cis-regulatory element is sequentially regulated by multiple signaling pathways and a selector protein during Drosophila wing development. Such a mechanism is possibly conserved in the appendage outgrowth of other arthropods and vertebrates.

Animals↗

brinker and optomotor-blind act coordinately to initiate development of the L5 wing vein primordium in Drosophila.

The stereotyped pattern of Drosophila wing veins is determined by the action of two morphogens, Hedgehog (Hh) and Decapentaplegic (Dpp), which act sequentially to organize growth and patterning along the anterior-posterior axis of the wing primordium. An important unresolved question is how positional information established by these morphogen gradients is translated into localized development of morphological structures such as wing veins in precise locations. In the current study, we examine the mechanism by which two broadly expressed Dpp signaling target genes, optomotor-blind (omb) and brinker (brk), collaborate to initiate formation of the fifth longitudinal (L5) wing vein. omb is broadly expressed at the center of the wing disc in a pattern complementary to that of brk, which is expressed in the lateral regions of the disc and represses omb expression. We show that a border between omb and brk expression domains is necessary and sufficient for inducing L5 development in the posterior regions. Mosaic analysis indicates that brk-expressing cells produce a short-range signal that can induce vein formation in adjacent omb-expressing cells. This induction of the L5 primordium is mediated by abrupt, which is expressed in a narrow stripe of cells along the brk/omb border and plays a key role in organizing gene expression in the L5 primordium. Similarly, in the anterior region of the wing, brk helps define the position of the L2 vein in combination with another Dpp target gene, spalt. The similar mechanisms responsible for the induction of L5 and L2 development reveal how boundaries set by dosage-sensitive responses to a long-range morphogen specify distinct vein fates at precise locations.

Animals↗

Action of fat, four-jointed, dachsous and dachs in distal-to-proximal wing signaling.

In the Drosophila wing, distal cells signal to proximal cells to induce the expression of Wingless, but the basis for this distal-to-proximal signaling is unknown. Here, we show that three genes that act together during the establishment of tissue polarity, fat, four-jointed and dachsous, also influence the expression of Wingless in the proximal wing. fat is required cell autonomously by proximal wing cells to repress Wingless expression, and misexpression of Wingless contributes to proximal wing overgrowth in fat mutant discs. Four-jointed and Dachsous can influence Wingless expression and Fat localization non-autonomously, consistent with the suggestion that they influence signaling to Fat-expressing cells. We also identify dachs as a gene that is genetically required downstream of fat, both for its effects on imaginal disc growth and for the expression of Wingless in the proximal wing. Our observations provide important support for the emerging view that Four-jointed, Dachsous and Fat function in an intercellular signaling pathway, identify a normal role for these proteins in signaling interactions that regulate growth and patterning of the proximal wing, and identify Dachs as a candidate downstream effector of a Fat signaling pathway.

Animals↗

Posterior apical ectodermal ridge removal in the chick wing bud triggers a series of events resulting in defective anterior pattern formation.

The ability of the anterior apical ectodermal ridge to promote outgrowth in the chick wing bud when disconnected from posterior apical ridge was examined by rotating the posterior portion of the stage-19/20 to stage-21 wing bud around its anteroposterior axis. This permitted contact between the anterior and posterior mesoderm, without removing wing bud tissue. In a small but significant number of cases (10/54), anterior structures (digit 2) formed spatially isolated from posterior structures (digits 3 and 4). Thus, continuity with posterior ridge is not a prerequisite for anterior-ridge function in the wing bud. Nevertheless, posterior-ridge removal does result in anterior limb truncation. To investigate events leading to anterior truncation, we examined cell death patterns in the wing bud following posterior-ridge removal. We observed an abnormal area of necrosis along the posterior border of the wing bud at 6-12 h following posterior-ridge removal. This was followed by necrosis in the distal, anterior mesoderm at 48 h postoperatively and subsequent anterior truncation. Clearly, healthy posterior limb bud mesoderm is needed for anterior limb bud survival and development. We propose that anterior truncation is the direct result of anterior mesodermal cell death and that this may not be related to positional specification of anterior cells. In our view, cell death of anterior mesoderm, after posterior mesoderm removal, should not be used as evidence for a role in position specification by the polarizing zone during the limb bud stages of development. We suggest that the posterior mesoderm that maintains the anterior mesoderm need not be restricted to the mapped polarizing zone, but is more extensively distributed in the limb bud.

Animals↗

Development of Drosophila wing sensory neurons in mutants with missing or modified cell surface molecules.

The neurons of the sensory receptors on the wing of Drosophila melanogaster have highly characteristic axon projections in the central nervous system (CNS). The morphology of these projections was studied in flies bearing mutations that affect cell surface molecules thought to be important in axon guidance. The animals used were mutant for the fasciclinI (fasI), fasciclinII (fasII), fasciclinIII (fasIII) and neurally altered carbohydrate (nac) genes. Axon populations were visualized by staining with DiI and light-reacting the dye with diaminobenzidine to yield permanent preparations. The fasI, fasII and fasIII mutants as well as the nac mutant display altered axonal trajectories in the CNS. One phenotype seen in fasII mutants and in animals mutant for both fasI and fasIII was extra branching within the axon projection pattern. A second phenotype observed was a reduction or complete loss of one of the tracts, apparently due to the axons shifting to a neighboring tract. This was seen in the most extreme form in nac mutants and to a lesser degree in fasIII mutants. To determine if the mutations discussed here affected axon guidance, wing discs were analyzed using the antibody 22C10 to label sensory neurons in the wing during metamorphosis. Both misrouting of axons and the appearance of ectopic neurons in the wing were observed. In the fasI:fasIII, the fasII and the nac mutants, there was misrouting of sensory axons in the developing wing. In addition, the fasII and nac mutants displayed ectopic sensory neurons in the wing. This implies that the cell surface molecules missing (fasciclins) or modified (by the nac gene product), in these mutants may play a role in both neurogenesis and axon guidance.

Animals↗

patched overexpression alters wing disc size and pattern: transcriptional and post-transcriptional effects on hedgehog targets.

The membrane protein, Patched, plays a critical role in patterning embryonic and imaginal tissues in Drosophila. patched constitutively inactivates the transcription of target genes such as wingless, decapentaplegic, and patched itself. The secreted protein, Hedgehog, induces transcription of target genes by opposing the Patched signaling pathway. Using the Gal4 UAS system we have overexpressed patched in wing imaginal discs and found that high Patched levels, expressed in either normal or ectopic patterns, result in loss of wing vein patterning in both compartments centering at the anterior/posterior border. In addition, patched inhibits the formation of the mechanosensory neurons, the campaniform sensilla, in the wing blade. The patched wing vein phenotype is modulated by mutations in hedgehog and cubitus interruptus (ci). Patched overexpression inhibits transcription of patched and decapentaplegic and post-transcriptionally decreases the amount of Ci protein at the anterior/posterior boundary. In hedgehogMrt wing discs, which express ectopic hedgehog, Ci levels are correspondingly elevated, suggesting that hedgehog relieves patched repression of Ci accumulation. Protein kinase A also regulates Ci; protein kinase A mutant clones in the anterior compartment have increased levels of Ci protein. Thus patched influences wing disc patterning by decreasing Ci protein levels and inactivating hedgehog target genes in the anterior compartment.

Animals↗

Nubbin encodes a POU-domain protein required for proximal-distal patterning in the Drosophila wing.

The nubbin gene is required for normal growth and patterning of the wing in Drosophila. We report here that nubbin encodes a member of the POU family of transcription factors. Regulatory mutants which selectively remove nubbin expression from wing imaginal discs lead to loss of wing structures. Although nubbin is expressed throughout the wing primordium, analysis of genetic mosaics suggests a localized requirement for nubbin activity in the wing hinge. These observations suggest the existence of a novel proximal-distal growth control center in the wing hinge, which is required in addition to the well characterized anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral compartment boundary organizing centers.

Animals↗

Distinct mitogenic and cell fate specification functions of wingless in different regions of the wing.

Patterning and proliferation are coordinately controlled in the development of Drosophila imaginal discs. Localized expression of decapentaplegic (dpp) at the anterior-posterior and wingless (wg) at the dorsal-ventral compartment boundaries controls growth of the wing with respect to the A/P and D/V axes. The growth-promoting effects of these organizers are thought to be indirect, since growth is dispersed throughout the disc, and is not localized near the sources of wg or dpp. wg has also been implicated in proximal-distal patterning of the wing hinge. In this report, we present evidence that wg is principally required for local cell proliferation in the hinge. Loss of wg expression leads to a local reduction in cell division, resulting in the deletion of a distinct set of wing hinge structures. Ectopic activation of the wg pathway in cells of the wing hinge leads to overproliferation without repatterning, indicating that wg acts as a mitogen in this part of the disc. By contrast, overexpression of wg in the wing blade leads to repatterning and only secondarily to proliferation. These results suggest that the Wg signal elicits very different responses in different regions of the wing imaginal disc.

Alleles↗