Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Aug:69:35-41.
doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2021.01.006. Epub 2021 Feb 9.

From Aedes to Zeugodacus: a review of dipteran body coloration studies regarding evolutionary developmental biology, pest control, and species discovery

William A Dion  1 , Tessa E Steenwinkel  2 , Thomas Werner  3
Affiliations
Review

From Aedes to Zeugodacus: a review of dipteran body coloration studies regarding evolutionary developmental biology, pest control, and species discovery

William A Dion et al. Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Over the past two decades, evo-devo (evolution of development) studies have elucidated genetic mechanisms underlying novel dipteran body color patterns. Here we review the most recent developments, which show some departure from the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, leading the field into the investigation of more complex color patterns. We also discuss how the robust application of transgenic techniques has facilitated the study of many non-model pest species. Furthermore, we see that subtle pigmentation differences guide the discovery and description of new dipterans. Therefore, we argue that the existence of new field guides and the prevalence of pigmentation studies in non-model flies will enable scientists to adopt uninvestigated species into the lab, allowing them to study novel morphologies.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest statement

Nothing declared.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:. Drosophilid body coloration.
Here, we see just a fraction of the diverse body color patterning exhibited within the order Diptera. Some of these unique morphologies are the subjects of recent investigations detailed within this review. However, many other traits shown here are not mentioned in the literature, and their developments deserve to be investigated. Row 1: (A, B) D. guttifera, (C, D) D. deflecta, and (E, F) Leucophenga varia. Row 2: (G) D. palustris, (H) D. subpalustris, (I) D. busckii, (J) D. hydei, (K) the thoracic trident of D. melanogaster, and (L) the striped thorax of Zaprionus indianus. Row 3: (M) D. melanogaster (female), (N) D. melanogaster (male), (O) Hirtodrosophila duncani (female), (P) Hirtodrosophila duncani (male), (Q) Samoaia leonensis, and (R) Chymomyza amoena. Row 4: (S) D. americana, (T) Mycodrosophila claytonae, (U) Mycodrosophila dimidiata, and (V) Phortica variegata. Row 5: (W) D. macrospina, (X) D. borealis, (Y) D. peninsularis, and (Z) D. ananassae. Images are from [53*, 54*].
Figure 2:
Figure 2:. The pigmentation biosynthesis pathway.
The previously understood role of Yellow (Yellow*) is shown by a dashed line. POs are phenol oxidases, aaNATs is arylalkylamine N-acetyl transferases, NADA is N-acetyl dopamine, and NBAD is N-β-alanyl dopamine. Figure adapted from [8,10,33,34].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Courtney GW, Cranston PS: Chapter 40 - Order Diptera. In Thorp and Covich’s Freshwater Invertebrates (Fourth Edition). Edited by Thorp JH, Rogers DC. Academic Press; 2015:1043–1058.
    1. Sarwar M: Typical flies: Natural history, lifestyle and diversity of Diptera. In Life Cycle and Development of Diptera. Edited by: Sarwar M IntechOpen; 2020: 1–50.
    1. Wittkopp PJ, True JR, Carroll SB: Reciprocal functions of the Drosophila Yellow and Ebony proteins in the development and evolution of pigment patterns. Development 2002, 129:1849–1858. - PubMed
    1. Wittkopp PJ, Vaccaro K, Carroll SB: Evolution of yellow gene regulation and pigmentation in Drosophila. Curr Biol 2002, 12:1547–1556. - PubMed
    1. Lamb AM, Wang Z, Simmer P, Chung H, Wittkopp PJ: ebony Affects pigmentation divergence and cuticular hydrocarbons in Drosophila americana and D. novamexicana. Front Ecol Evol 2020, 8:184. - PMC - PubMed

    2. *Here, the CRISPR/Cas9 system was used to knock out ebony in D. americana and D. novamexicana. The authors used these ebony knockout mutants to support the assumption that differences in ebony alleles impact the development of species-specific body coloration seen in these two fruit fly species.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources