Abstract
Expression of the amylase multigene family of Drosophila ananassae was investigated in third-instar larvae and adults. A developmental differentiation was found between the Amy1-2 and Amy3-4 gene clusters, the former being preferentially expressed in larvae, the latter in adults. During adult life, we observed a decrease in Amy1-2 expression in males of certain strains. We have raised some arguments for the existence of irans-active regulators, acting as repressors of Amy1-2 in adults. The putative repressors might exhibit a geographical polymorphism, with a fixed active form in Pacific regions and a polymorphic pattern in Africa, thus increasing the diversity observed in adult amylase phenotypes. A clear differentiation between the two gene clusters was also found in tissue-specific activity along the third-instar larval midgut. In the anterior midgut, only Amy1-2 is active, while both gene groups are expressed in the posterior midgut, with an additional subzonation within it.
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da Lage, JL., Klarenberg, A. & Cariou, ML. Variation in sex-, stage- and tissue-specific expression of the amylase genes in Drosophila ananassae. Heredity 76, 9–18 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1996.2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1996.2
