Drosophila simulans
| Drosophila simulans | |
|---|---|
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| Drosophila simulans adult female | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Diptera |
| Genus: | Drosophila |
| Subgenus: | Sophophora |
| Species group: | Drosophila melanogaster group |
| Species subgroup: | Drosophila melanogaster subgroup |
| Species complex: | Drosophila simulans complex |
| Species: | D. simulans |
| Binomial name | |
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Drosophila simulans Sturtevant, 1919 |
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Drosophila simulans is a species of fly closely related to D. melanogaster, belonging to the same melanogaster species subgroup. Its closest relatives are D. mauritiana and D. sechellia.
This species was discovered by the fly geneticist Alfred Sturtevant in 1919, when he noticed that the flies used in Thomas Hunt Morgan's laboratory at the Columbia University were actually two distinct species: D. melanogaster and D. simulans. Males differ in the external genitalia, while trained observers can separate females using colour characteristics. D. melanogaster females crossed to D. simulans males produce sterile F1 females and no F1 males. The reciprocal cross produces sterile F1 males and no female progeny.
Drosophila simulans was found later to be closely related to two island endemics, D. sechellia and D. mauritiana. D. simulans will mate with these sister species to form fertile females and sterile males, a fact that has made D. simulans an important model organism for research into speciation.
Studies have provided evidences that paternal leakage is an integral part of the inheritance of this species.
Wolbachia infections give insight into how certain species of Drosophila are related. Through the analysis of cytoplasmic incompatibility and similar mitochondrial DNA, it has been shown that D. simulans and D. mauritiana are more closely related to each other than to D. sechellia. Cytoplasmic incompatibility causes egg and sperm cells to fail in creating viable offspring, a common feature in Wolbachia-infected D. simulans and D. mauritiana individuals.Drosophila sechellia has significantly distinct mitochondrial DNA, further emphasizing the evolutionary differences between the three species.
Infections of Wolbachia, a commonly infectious strain of bacteria observed in many insects such as Trichogramma and Muscidifurax uniraptor wasps, are transmitted between generations of Drosophila simulans. The mechanism by which Wolbachia is inherited through maternal heredity is called cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI).
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