Fruitflies -: Pigmentation and mate choice in Drosophila
Fruitflies -: Pigmentation and mate choice in Drosophila
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DOI：
10.1038/419360a
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发表时间：
2002-09-26
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Coyne, JA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Llopart, A;Elwyn, S;Coyne, JA
许多种类的果蝇在腹部色素沉着上要么是两性二型的（雄性果蝇的后节是黑色的，而雌性果蝇的后节有细的深色条纹），要么是两性一型的（两性都有条纹）。Kopp等人报道了两个果蝇分支中bric-à-brac （bab）基因的表达与两性二态色素的存在之间的相关性。bric-à-brac （bab）基因抑制雌性黑腹果蝇的雄性特异性色素沉着。他们认为，性别选择通过改变对肤色的调节，在果蝇中产生了性别二色性，理由是黑腹果蝇的雄性对腹部颜色浅的雌性表现出强烈的配偶偏好，这种歧视有助于维持性别二色性，防止雄性浪费时间去追求其他（深色）雄性。在这里，我们表明Kopp等人观察到的配偶歧视实际上可能是由他们在研究中使用的菌株和比较的性质造成的，因此可能与本质上的配偶选择无关。
Many species of the fruitfly Drosophila are either sexually dimorphic for abdominal pigmentation (the posterior segments in males are black and those of females have thin dark stripes) or sexually monomorphic for this pigmentation (both sexes show striping). Kopp et al. report a correlation in two Drosophila clades between the expression of the bric-à-brac (bab) gene, which represses male-specific pigmentation in D. melanogaster females, and the presence of sexually dimorphic pigmentation. They suggest that sexual selection acted to produce sexual dichromatism in Drosophila by altering the regulation of bab, on the grounds that D. melanogaster males show a strong mate preference for females with lightly pigmented abdomens, and that this discrimination helps to maintain sexual dichromatism by preventing males from wasting time by courting other (darkly pigmented) males. Here we show that the mate discrimination observed by Kopp et al. may in fact have resulted from the nature of the strains and comparisons they used in their study and so could be irrelevant to mate choice in nature.