Abstract
By contrast with Drosophila melanogaster, wild living D. simulans adults generally do not exhibit a thoracic dark pigmentation with a trident shape. This trident however appears when development occurs at low temperature. A study of 26 natural populations from various parts of the world revealed a significant latitudinal cline, expressed only at 17° C. The slope of this cline and the amplitude of the variations were, however, much lower than in D. melanogaster. Laboratory selection on equatorial and temperate populations of D. simulans led to the production of lines with a very dark trident expressed at all temperatures. Crosses between selected and unselected lines showed a main or partial influence of the X chromosome, a maternal effect and a reversal of dominance according to growth temperature. Thus, D. simulans exhibits a large amount of genetic interpopulational variability which is not fully expressed among its geographic populations. For thoracic pigmentation, a clear contrast exists between the homogeneity of D. simulans natural populations and the great geographic variation found in D. melanogaster, an observation comparable to that made for other genetical traits in the two sibling species.
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Capy, P., David, J. & Robertson, A. Thoracic trident pigmentation in natural populations of Drosophila simulans: a comparison with D. melanogaster. Heredity 61, 263–268 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1988.114
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1988.114
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