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Sexual isolation between North American and Bogota strains of Drosophila pseudoobscura

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Abstract

Sexual isolation, the reduced ability of organisms of different species to successfully mate, is one of the reproductive barriers that prevent gene flow between different taxa. Various species-specific signals during courtship are attributed to the sexual isolation between them. Drosophila pseudoobscura has been widely used to study the behavioral and genetic mechanisms underlying selection for sexual isolation, as a model system for speciation. D. pseudoobscura and its sibling species, D. persmilis, live together in many locations but are reproductively isolated from one another. North American geographic strains of D. pseudoobscura from the American West mate at random. Several decades ago, D. pseudoobscura was collected in the vicinity of Bogota, Colombia, and later named the subspecies D. pseudoobscura bogotana. Nearly 5,000 matings were observed in this study. We analyzed mating behavior and cuticular hydrocarbon profiles as well as courtship within and between North American and Bogota strains of D. pseudoobscura. Here we report for the first time that Bogota strains of D. pseudoobscura do show statistically significant sexual isolation from North American strains. In addition, there are quantitative variations in cuticular hydrocarbons as well as in courtship behavior between Bogota and North American strains, and females of both North American and Bogota strains show strong preference for North American strain males having high mating propensities, suggesting that the Bogota strains are at an early stage that could lead to a separate species.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Ms. Kyungsun Kim for her technical assistance with the experiments, to Lee Ehrman, Jean-Marc Jallon and Yun Tao for discussions, to Therese Markow for providing old Bogota strains, and to three anonymous reviewers whose comments improved the earlier version of the manuscript. This project was supported by NIH Grant 5R01 GM048528-06 (to WWA) and UGA Faculty Grant 10-21-RR-064-069 (to Y.-K.K).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Yong-Kyu Kim

  2. Unidad de Genetica, Departamento de Biologia, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá DC, Colombia, USA

    Manuel Ruiz-García & Diana Alvarez

  3. Department of Chemistry, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Dennis R. Phillips

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

    Wyatt W. Anderson

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  1. Yong-Kyu Kim
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  2. Manuel Ruiz-García
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  3. Diana Alvarez
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  4. Dennis R. Phillips
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  5. Wyatt W. Anderson
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Correspondence to Yong-Kyu Kim.

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We dedicate this paper to Professor Francisco J. Ayala who was a mentor and longterm colleague.

Edited by John K Hewitt.

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Kim, YK., Ruiz-García, M., Alvarez, D. et al. Sexual isolation between North American and Bogota strains of Drosophila pseudoobscura . Behav Genet 42, 472–482 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-011-9517-7

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