The Interaction of Genetic and Environmental Factors in the Control of Amylase Gene Expression in DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Abstract

A number of previous studies have established that amylase activity can vary between Drosophila strains which are maintained under identical laboratory conditions. In addition, we have recently shown that all strains examined so far are subject to glucose repression of amylase activity. In this study, we show that the degree of glucose repression can vary between strains. Moreover, the glucose repression effect is much more pronounced in larvae than in adult flies. Our results lead to the conclusion that the strain-specific differences in activity and the dietary effects are not independent phenomena. These results have implications for the interpretation of many studies on amylase activity variation, including those experiments which have been designed to link amylase activity variations with fitness differences in nature. A question that naturally arises concerns the molecular basis for these strain-specific variations in the degree of glucose repression of this eukaryotic gene.