$ 3 mm long dipteran ( ̄y), commonly known as the fruit ̄y. $ Adult ̄y is yellow-brown in colour, with oval wings and rust-red eyes. $ y180 Mb genome, as four chromosomes X/Y, 2, 3 and 4. $ Genome sequence substantially completed 24 March 2000. $ 120 Mb euchromatic region of genome comprises 13 601 predicted genes. $ Has made signi®cant contribution to understanding of development. $ Large-scale P...

In Drosophila melanogaster, the patterning of dorsal appendages on the eggshell is strictly controlled by EGFR signaling. However, the number of dorsal appendages is remarkably diverse among Drosophila species. For example, D. melanogaster and D. virilis have two and four dorsal appendages, respectively. Here we show that during oogenesis the expression patterns of rhomboid (rho) and argos (aos...

As in most invertebrate microvillar photoreceptors, phototransduction in Drosophila melanogaster uses a G-protein-coupled phosphoinositide pathway, whereby hydrolysis of phosphatidyl inositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP(2)) by phospholipase C generates inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP(3)) and diacyl glycerol (DAG), leading to activation of two classes of Ca(2+)-permeable light-sensitive channel, en...

Precise transcriptional control is dependent on specific interactions of a number of regulatory elements such as promoters, enhancers and silencers. Several studies indicate that the genome in higher eukaryotes is divided into chromatin domains with functional autonomy. Chromatin domain boundaries are a class of regulatory elements that restrict enhancers to interact with appropriate promoters ...

The genotypic signature of spatially varying selection is ubiquitous across the Drosophila melanogaster genome. Spatially structured adaptive phenotypic differences are also commonly found, particularly along New World and Australian latitudinal gradients. However, investigation of gene expression variation in one or multiple environments across these well-studied populations is surprisingly li...

Wolbachia are bacteria that live inside the cells of a large number of invertebrate hosts and are transmitted from infected females to their offspring. Their presence is associated with cytoplasmic incompatibility in several species of Drosophila. Cytoplasmic incompatibility results when the sperm of infected males fertilize eggs of uninfected females, causing more or less intense embryonic mor...

Explanations for the evolution of delayed maturity usually invoke trade-offs mediated by growth, but processes of reproductive maturation continue long after growth has ceased. Here, we tested whether sexual selection shapes the rate of posteclosion maturation in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. We found that populations maintained for more than 100 generations under a short generation ti...

The complete mitogenomes of 13 strains of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster were sequenced. Haplotypes varied between 19 532 and 19 537 bp in length, and followed standard dipteran mitogenome content and organization. We detected a total of 354 variable sites between all thirteen haplotypes, while single pairs of haplotypes were separated by an average of 123 variable sites. The sequenced f...

In Drosophila melanogaster, weak incompatibility in crosses between infected and uninfected strains is associated with a Wolbachia microorganism. Crosses between infected males and uninfected females show a reduction (15-30%) in egg hatch. Progeny tests indicated that the infection is widespread in Australian D. melanogaster populations and that populations are polymorphic for the presence of t...

The two variable domains D1 and D2 near the 5' end of the 28S ribosomal RNA gene (large subunit rRNA) have been sequenced for Vespa crabro. The sequence was aligned to corresponding rDNA regions of the wasp species Nasonia vitripennis, Melittobia digitata and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. We analysed the nucleotide composition and sequence similarity for the different regions of the in...