Abstract
The role of phenotypic adaptation and maternal effects in the survival of Drosophila melanogaster on media supplemented with alcohol was investigated. Egg-to-adult survival depends on the age at which the eggs are transferred from regular to ethanol-containing food. Eggs transferred at an age of 8 hours or less, produce significantly more adults than eggs transferred after 14 hours. This phenomenon is not observed when eggs are exposed only temporarily to ethanol at different ages. Phenotypic adaptation was also observed on food supplemented with propanol, butanol and hexanol for strains not selected for ethanol tolerance. Maternal effects had a great influence on egg-to-adult survival on ethanol-supplemented food. Eggs homozygous for the Adhn1 allele showed a significantly better survival on 4 per cent ethanol food when laid by ADH-positive mothers, than laid by ADH-negative mothers. This maternal effect was probably caused by maternal ADH and not by maternal mRNA. Phenotypic adaptation and maternal effect are both important in the survival of D. melanogaster on food containing alcohol, especially in the case of selection during pre-adult life stages.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Bijlsma-Meeles, E. 1979. Viability in Drosophila melanogaster in relation to age and ADH activity of eggs transferred to ethanol food. Heredity, 42, 79–89.
Briscoe, D A, Robertson, A, and Malpica, M J. 1975. Dominance at the Adh locus in response of adult Drosophila melanogaster to environmental alcohol. Nature, 255, 148–149.
Castelli, T. 1954. Les agents de la fermentation vinaire. Arch Microbiol, 20, 323–342.
David, J R, and Bocquet, C. 1977. Genetic tolerance to ethanol in Drosophila melanogaster: Increase by selection and analysis of correlated responses. Genetica, 47, 43–48.
Gerasimova, T I, and Smirnova, S G. 1979. Maternal effect for genes encoding 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in Drosophila melanogaster. Developm Genet, 1, 97–107.
Gibson, J. 1970. Enzyme flexibility in Drosophila melanogaster. Nature, 227, 959–960.
Grell, E H, Jacobson, K, and Murphy, J B. 1968. Alterations of genetic material for analysis of alcohol dehydrogenase isozymes of Drosophila melanogaster. Ann N Y Acad Sci, 151, 441–455.
Horikawa, M, King, L N L, and Fox, A S. 1967. Effects of substrates on gene-controlled enzyme activities in cultured embryonic cells of Drosophila. Genetics, 55, 569–583.
Hulme, A C. 1970. The Biochemistry of Fruits and their Products, 1, Academic Press, New York.
Hulme, A C. 1971. The Biochemistry of Fruits and their Products, 2, Academic Press, New York.
Katanuma, N, Kominami, E, and Kominami, S. 1971a. A new enzyme that specifically inactivates apo-protein of pyridoxal enzymes. Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 45, 70–75.
Katanuma, N, Kito, K, and Kominami, E. 1971b. A new protein that specifically inactivates apo-protein of NAD-dependent dehydrogenases. Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 45, 76–81.
Kerver, J W M, and Van Delden, W. 1985. Development of tolerance to ethanol in relation to the alcohol dehydrogenase locus in Drosophila melanogaster. I. Adult and egg-to-adult survival in relation to AD H activity. Heredity, 55, 355–367.
Leibenguth, F, Rammo, E, and Dubiczky, R. 1979. A comparative study of embryonic gene expression in Drosophila and Ephestia. Wilhelm Roux' Arch Dev Biol, 187, 81–88.
McDonald, J F, Chambers, G K, David, J, and Ayala, F J. 1977. Adaptive response due to changes in gene regulation: A study with Drosophila. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 74, 4562–4566.
McKenzie, J A, and McKechnie, S W. 1978. Ethanol tolerance and the Adh polymorphism in a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster. Nature, 272, 75–76.
McKenzie, J A, and McKechnie, S W. 1979. A comparative study of resource utilization in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans. Oecologia, 10, 373–388.
McKenzie, J A, and Parsons, P A. 1974. Microdifferenti-ation in a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster to alcohol in the environment. Genetics, 77, 385–394.
Sokal, R R, and Rohlf, F J. 1981. Biometry, W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco, 239–246.
Van Delden, W. 1982. The alcohol dehydrogenase polymorphism in Drosophila melanogaster. Selection at an enzyme locus. Evol Biol, 15, 187–222.
Van Delden, W. 1984. The alcohol dehydrogenase polymorphism in Drosophila melanogaster, facts and problems. In K. Wôhrmann and V. Loeschcke (eds.) Population Biology and Evolution. Springer Verlag, Berlin. 127–142.
Van Delden, W, Boerema, A C, and Kamping, A. 1978. The alcohol dehydrogenase polymorphism in populations of Drosophila melanogaster. I. Selection in different environments. Genetics, 90, 161–191.
Van Delden, W, and Kamping, A. 1981. Selection against an Adh null allele. Dros Inf Serv, 56, 149–150.
Wright, D A, and Shaw, C R. 1970. Time of expression of genes controlling specific enzymes in Drosophila embryos. Biochem Genet, 4, 385–394.
Yoon, S B, and Fox, A S. 1965. Permeability of premature eggs from Drosophila collected with the “Ovitron”. Nature, 206, 910–913.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kerver, W., Rotman, G. Development of ethanol tolerance in relation to the alcohol dehydrogenase locus in Drosophila melanogaster. II. The influence of phenotypic adaptation and maternal effect on survival on alcohol supplemented media. Heredity 58, 239–248 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1987.38
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1987.38
This article is cited by
-
Genotype-environment interaction for total fitness in Drosophila
Journal of Genetics (2008)
-
Regulatory differences in developmental expression of alcohol dehydrogenase are related to interspecies differences in ethanol tolerance of Drosophila
Heredity (1994)
-
Evolutionary genetics of the Drosophila alcohol dehydrogenase gene-enzyme system
Genetica (1993)
-
Genetic variation for oviposition behavior inDrosophila melanogaster. II. Oviposition preferences and differential survival
Behavior Genetics (1990)
-
Selection against Adh null alleles in Drosophila melanogaster
Heredity (1988)