Abstract
The molecular organization of a 1.944-Mb chromosomal region of Drosophila melanogaster around the Adh locus has been analyzed in two repleta group species: D. repleta and D. buzzatii. The extensive genetic and molecular information about this region in D. melanogaster makes it a prime choice for comparative studies of genomic organization among distantly related species. A set of 26 P1 phages from D. melanogaster were successfully hybridized using fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) to the salivary gland chromosomes of both repleta group species. The results show that the Adh region is distributed in D. repleta and D. buzzatii over six distant sites of chromosome 3, homologous to chromosomal arm 2L of D. melanogaster (Muller's element B). This observation implies a density of 2.57 fixed breakpoints per Mb in the Adh region and suggests a considerable reorganization of this chromosomal element via the fixation of paracentric inversions. Nevertheless, breakpoint density in the Adh region is three times lower than that estimated for D. repleta chromosome 2, homologous to D. melanogaster 3R (Muller's element E). Differences in the rate of evolution among chromosomal elements are seemingly persistent in the Drosophila genus over long phylogenetic distances.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams MD, Celniker SE, Holt RA et al. (2000) The genome sequence of Drosophila melanogaster. Science 287: 2185–2195.
Albalat R, González-Duarte R (1993) Adh and Adh-dup sequences of Drosophila lebanonensis and D. immigrans: interspecies comparisons. Gene 126: 171–178.
Amador A, Juan E (1999) Non fixed duplication containing the Adh gene and a truncated form of the Adhr gene in the Drosophila funebris species group: different modes of evolution of Adh relative to Adhr in Drosophila. Mol Biol Evol 16: 1439–1456.
Ashburner M, Misra S, Roote J et al. (1999) An exploration of the sequence of a 2.9–Mb region of the genome of Drosophila melanogaster. The Adh region. Genetics 153: 179–219.
BDGP (1999) Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project. Available at hhttp://www.fruitfly.orgi.
Begun DJ (1997) Origin and evolution of a new gene descendent from alcohol dehydrogenase in Drosophila. Genetics 145: 375–382.
Betrán E, Santos M, Ruiz A (1998) Antagonistic pleiotropic effect of second-chromosome inversions on body size and early life-history traits in Drosophila buzzatii. Evolution 52: 144–154.
Beverly SM, Wilson AC (1984) Molecular evolution in Drosophila and higher Dipterans. II. A time scale for fly evolution. J Mol Evol 21: 1–13.
Brogna S, Ashburner M (1997) The Adh-related gene of Drosophila melanogaster is expressed as a functional dicistronic messenger RNA: Multigenic transcription in higher organisms. EMBO J 16: 2023–2031.
Cáceres M, Ranz JM, Barbadilla A, Long M, Ruiz A (1999) Generation of a widespread Drosophila inversion by a transposable element. Science 285: 415–418.
Cirera S, Martín-Campos JM, Segarra C, Aguadé M (1995) Molecular characterization of the breakpoints of an inversion fixed between Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila subobscura. Genetics 139: 321–326.
Grell EH, Jacobson KB, Murphy JB (1968) Alterations of gen-etic material for analysis of alcohol dehydrogenase isozymes of Drosophila melanogaster. Ann NY Acad Sci 151: 441–455.
Hartl DL, Lozovskaya ER (1994) Genome evolution: between the nucleosome and the chromosome. In: Schierwater B, Streit B, Wagner GP, de Salle R, ed. Molecular Ecology and Evolution: Approaches and Applications. Basel: Birkäser, pp 579–592.
Hooper JE, Perez-Alonso M, Bermingham JR et al. (1992) Comparative studies of Drosophila Antennapedia genes. Genetics 132: 453–469.
Jeffs PS, Holmes EC, Ashburner M (1994) The molecular evol-ution of the alcohol dehydrogenase and alcohol dehydrogenase-related genes in the Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup. Mol Biol Evol 11: 287–304.
Juan E, Papaceit M, Quintana A (1994) Nucleotide sequence of the genomic region encompassing Adh and Adh-dup genes of D. lebanonensis (Scaptodrosophila): gene expression and evolutionary relationships. J Mol Evol 38: 455–467.
Kress H (1993) The salivary gland chromosomes of Drosophila virilis: a cytological map, pattern of transcription and aspects of chromosome evolution. Chromosoma 102: 734–742.
Labrador M, Naveira H, Fontdevila A (1990) Genetic mapping of the Adh locus in the repleta group of Drosophila by in situ hybridization. J Hered 81(1): 83–86.
Lefevre G Jr (1976) A photographic representation and interpretation of the polytene chromosomes of D. melanogaster salivary glands. In: Ashburner M, Novitski E, eds. The Genetics and Biology of Drosophila, vol. 1a. London: Academic Press, pp 31–66.
Lemeunier F, Aulard S (1992) Inversion polymorphism in Drosophila melanogaster. In: Krimbas CB, Powell JR, eds. Drosophila Inversion Polymorphism. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, pp 339–405.
Loukas M, Kafatos FC (1986) The actin loci in the genus Drosophila: establishment of chromosomal homologies among distantly related species by in situ hybridization. Chromosoma 94: 297–308.
Maier D, Marte BM, Schafer W, Yu Y, Preiss A (1993) Drosophila evolution challenges postulated redundancy in the E(spl) gene complex. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 90: 5464–5468.
Marfany G, González-Duarte R (1991) The Adh genomic region of Drosophila ambigua: evolutionary trends in different species. J Mol Evol 32: 454–462.
Martinez-Cruzado JC, Swimmer MG, Fenerjian MG, Kafatos FC (1988) Evolution of the autosomal chorion locus in Drosophila. I. General organization of the locus and sequence comparisons of genes s15 and s19 in evolutionary distant species. Genetics 119: 663–677.
Menotti-Raymond M, Starmer WT, Sullivan DT (1991) Characterization of the structure and evolution of the Adh region of Drosophila hydei. Genetics 127: 355–366.
Montgomery E, Charlesworth B, Langley CH (1987) A test for role of natural selection in the stabilization of transposable element copy number in a population of Drosophila melanogaster. Genet Res 49: 31–41.
Muller JH (1940) Bearings of the Drosophila work on systematics. In: Huxley J, ed. New Systematics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp 185–268.
Nadeau JH, Taylor BA (1984) Lengths of chromosomal segments conserved since divergence of man and mouse. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 81: 814–818.
Nurminsky DI, Moriyama EN, Lozovskaya ER, Hartl DL (1996) Molecular phylogeny and genome evolution in the Drosophila virilis species group: duplication of the alcohol dehydrogenase gene. Mol Biol Evol 13: 132–149.
Randazzo FM, Seeger MA, Huss CA, Sweeney MA, Cecil JK (1993) Structural changes in the Antennapedia complex of Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics 133: 319–330.
Ranz JM, Segarra C, Ruiz A (1997) chromosomal homology and molecular organization of Muller's element D and E in the Drosophila repleta species group. Genetics 145: 281–295.
Ranz JM, Cáceres M, Ruiz A (1999) Comparative mapping of cosmids and gene clones from a 1.6 Mb chromosomal region of D. melanogaster in three species of the distantly related subgenus Drosophila. Chromosoma 108: 32–43.
Ruiz A, Wasserman M (1993) Evolutionary cytoGenetics of the Drosophila buzzatii species complex. Heredity 70: 582–596.
Ruiz A, Ranz JM, Cáceres M, Segarra C, Navarro A, Barbadilla A (1997) chromosomal evolution and comparative gene mapping in the Drosophila repleta species group. Brazilian J Genet 20: 553–565.
Russo CAM, Takezaki N, Nei M (1995) Molecular phylogeny and divergence times of Drosophilid species. Mol Biol Evol 12: 391–404.
Schafer DJ (1992) Developmental and molecular studies of Adh in Drosophila buzzatii. Master Thesis, University of New England Armidale, NSW, Australia.
Schafer DJ, Fredline DK, Knibb WR, Green MM, Barker JSF (1993) Genetics and linkage mapping of Drosophila buzzatii. J Hered 84: 188–194.
Schneuwly S, Kuroiwa A, Gehring WJ (1987) Molecular analy-sis of the dominant homeotic Antennapedia phenotype. EMBO J 6: 201–206.
Segarra C, Aguadé M (1992) Molecular organization of the X chromosome in different species of the obscura group of Drosophila. Genetics 130: 513–521.
Segarra C, Lozovskaya ER, Ribó G, Aguadé M, Hartl DL (1995) P1 clones from Drosophila melanogaster as markers to study the chromosomal evolution of Muller's A element in two species of the obscura group of Drosophila. Chromosoma 104: 129–136.
Sokal RR, Rohlf, FJ (1995) Biometry. New York: Freeman.
Stathakis DS, Pentz ES, Freeman ME (1995) The genetic and molecular organization of the dopa decarboxilase gene cluster of Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 141: 629–655.
Steineman UM (1982) Analysis of chromosomal homologies between two species of the subgenus Sophophora: D. miranda and D. melanogaster using cloned DNA segments. Chromosoma 87: 77–88.
Steineman UM, Pinkser W, Sperlich D (1984) Chromosome homologies within the Drosophila obscura group probed by in situ hybridization. Chromosoma 91: 46–53.
Sturtevant AH, Novitski E (1941) The homologies of the chromosome elements in the genus Drosophila. Genetics 26: 517–541.
Sullivan DT, Atkinson PW, Starmer WT (1990) Molecular evolution of the alcohol dehydrogenase genes in the genus Drosophila. Evolut Biol 24: 107–147.
Sullivan DT, Starmer WT, Curtiss SW, Menotti-Raymond M, Yum J (1994) Unusual molecular evolution of an Adh pseudogen in Drosophila. Mol Biol Evol 11: 443–458.
Throckmorton LH (1982) The virilis species group. In: Ashburner M, Carson HL, Thompson JN eds. The Genetics and Biology of Drosophila, vol. 3b. New York: Academic Press, pp 227–296.
Vieira J, Vieira CP, Hartl DL, Lozovskaya ER (1997) A frame-work physical map of D. virilis based on P1 clones: applications in genome evolution. Chromosoma 106: 99–107.
Von Allmen G, Hogga I, Spierer A et al. (1996) Splits in fruitfly Hox gene complexes. Nature 380: 116.
Wasserman M (1992) Cytological evolution of the Drosophila repleta species group. In: Krimbas CB, Powell JR, eds. Drosophila Inversion Polymorphism. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, pp 455–552.
Wharton LT (1942) Analysis of the repleta group of Drosophila. Univ Texas Publ 4228: 23–52.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
González, J., Betrán, E., Ashburner, M. et al. Molecular organization of the Drosophila melanogaster Adh chromosomal region in D. replete and D. buzzatii, two distantly related species of the Drosophila subgenus. Chromosome Res 8, 375–385 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009206702214
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009206702214