Skip to main content
Log in

The sex-limited effects of mutations in the EGFR and TGF-β signaling pathways on shape and size sexual dimorphism and allometry in the Drosophila wing

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Development Genes and Evolution Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Much of the morphological diversity in nature—including among sexes within a species—is a direct consequence of variation in size and shape. However, disentangling variation in sexual dimorphism for both shape (SShD), size (SSD), and their relationship with one another remains complex. Understanding how genetic variation influences both size and shape together, and how this in turn influences SSD and SShD, is challenging. In this study, we utilize Drosophila wing size and shape as a model system to investigate how mutations influence size and shape as modulated by sex. Previous work has demonstrated that mutations in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling components can influence both wing size and shape. In this study, we re-analyze this data to specifically address how they impact the relationship between size and shape in a sex-specific manner, in turn altering the pattern of sexual dimorphism. While most mutations influence shape overall, only a subset have a genotypic specific effect that influences SShD. Furthermore, while we observe sex-specific patterns of allometric shape variation, the effects of most mutations on allometry tend to be small. We discuss this within the context of using mutational analysis to understand sexual size and shape dimorphism.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. William Pitchers for providing us with R scripts that facilitated the analysis.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Nicholas D. Testa or Ian Dworkin.

Ethics declarations

Funding

This work was supported by NIH grant 1R01GM094424–01 and an NSERC Discovery award to ID.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Communicated by Nico Posnien and Nikola-Michael Prpic

Data archiving: http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1041

Scripts will be archived on https://github.com/DworkinLab/TestaDworkin2016DGE

This article is part of the Special issue “Size and shape: integration of morphometrics, mathematical modeling, developmental and evolutionary biology”, Guest Editors: Nico Posnien—Nikola-Michael Prpic.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Table 1

(PDF 124 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

(PDF 91 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 1

Magnitude of SSD and SShD for 42 mutants in Oregon-R (left) and Samarkand (right) wild type backgrounds, after correcting for the influence of allometry (shape on size). A common allometry relationship was assumed across genotype and sex within each background and line combination. Residuals from the allometric model were then used for the analysis. This figure is otherwise identical to figure 2 (which does not correct for allometry). The effect of each mutant is mapped out in a size-and-shape dimorphism space. Genotypic means for each mutant are indicated by point style and connected by a solid line. SSD is plotted on each x-axis for all plots and SShD is displayed on the y-axis. The plots above display the entire range of variation observed, while those below display only the area with the highest density of points. Lines with significant sex-by-genotype effects are highlighted as follows: effect on both size and shape, shape only and size only. Only significant genes (after sequential Bonferroni correction) from the linear models are colored. Error bars are 95% confidence intervals (unadjusted alpha). All gene names are displayed lowercase, regardless of dominance (GIF 62 kb)

High-resolution image (EPS 649 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Testa, N.D., Dworkin, I. The sex-limited effects of mutations in the EGFR and TGF-β signaling pathways on shape and size sexual dimorphism and allometry in the Drosophila wing. Dev Genes Evol 226, 159–171 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-016-0534-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-016-0534-7

Keywords

Navigation