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Evolution of Cuticular Hydrocarbons of Hawaiian Drosophilidae

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Abstract

Hawaiian Drosophila offer an excellent model for adaptive evolution. More than 500 species are reported in Hawaiian islands, and there is considerable diversity in behavior and morphology. Such diversity is mainly driven by sexual selection. In this study qualitative and quantitative chemical compositions of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) in 138 flies belonging to 27 Hawaiian Drosophila species, picture-winged and non picture-winged, were analyzed regarding sexual dimorphism, differences in saturation, branching position, and lengths of CHCs. We found significant variation in the CHC patterns. In several subgroups, new species show decreases in unsaturated hydrocarbons, and gradual increases in branched compounds, monomethylalkanes and dimethylalkanes, not commonly found in Drosophila. Moreover, branching positions gradually shifted towards internal carbons, and chain lengths increased in the new species. The long-term evolution of CHCs in the light of the recent evolutionary migration and adaptation history of Hawaiian Drosophila species along the developing archipelago was discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Dr. Ken Kaneshiro for his help with fly identifications. We thank Wolfgang Miller and John Ringo for very helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. D.Y. was supported by Specially Promoted Research Grant 1802012 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Sciences and Technology (MEXT).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculte des Sciences d’Orsay, CNPS, UMR UPS-CNRS, Université Paris-SUD, Bat446, 91405, Orsay Cédex, France

    Helena Alves, Jacques-Deric Rouault, Daisuke Yamamoto & Jean-Marc Jallon

  2. LEGS, UPR CNRS 9034, 91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Jacques-Deric Rouault

  3. Honda Research Institute, Kisarazu-shi, Chiba, 292-0812, Japan

    Yasuhiro Kondoh

  4. Department of Genetics, Hyogo College of Medicine, 4-11 Mukogawa, Nishinomiya Hyogo, Japan

    Yoshiro Nakano

  5. Division of Neurogenetics, Tohoku University, Graduate School of Life Sciences, 6-3 Aoba aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan

    Daisuke Yamamoto

  6. Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Yong-Kyu Kim

Authors
  1. Helena Alves
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  2. Jacques-Deric Rouault
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  3. Yasuhiro Kondoh
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  4. Yoshiro Nakano
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  5. Daisuke Yamamoto
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  6. Yong-Kyu Kim
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  7. Jean-Marc Jallon
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Correspondence to Jean-Marc Jallon.

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Edited by Lee Ehrman.

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Alves, H., Rouault, JD., Kondoh, Y. et al. Evolution of Cuticular Hydrocarbons of Hawaiian Drosophilidae. Behav Genet 40, 694–705 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-010-9364-y

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