Genetic Basis of Pigmentation Evolution in Drosophila

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One of the most common features of living things, a feature that is shared among plants, animals, and bacteria, is that they come in a variety of different sizes, shapes and colors. The goal for this project is to understand how these differences are created. This will be accomplished by studying the genetic changes that are responsible for differences in body color among fruit flies of the same and different species. The genes responsible for pigmentation differences between individuals will be identified, and then examined closely to figure out how they have changed to create flies with different colors and patterns of pigmentation. A combination of genetic analysis (i.e. mating flies with different body colors), transgenic analysis (i.e. moving genes between individuals or species), and analysis of pigmentation in natural populations will be used to accomplish this goal.Understanding how pigmentation evolves in fruit flies provides information about how the evolutionary process works in general. Genes specify the characteristics of all animals, and differences within genes can create differences between individuals. Because all genes follow the same rules, the types of genetic changes responsible for differences in fly pigmentation should also be responsible for the evolution of other traits, including those that differ between humans and chimpanzees.