Evolution of the chromosomal location of rDNA genes in two Drosophila species subgroups: ananassae and melanogaster.

The evolution of the chromosomal location of ribosomal RNA gene clusters and the organization of heterochromatin in the Drosophila melanogaster group were investigated using fluorescence in situ hybridization and DAPI staining to mitotic chromosomes. The investigation of 18 species (11 of which were being examined for the first time) belonging to the melanogaster and ananassae subgroups suggests that the ancestral configuration consists of one nucleolus organizer (NOR) on each sex chromosome. This pattern, which is conserved throughout the melanogaster subgroup, except in D. simulans and D. sechellia, was observed only in the ercepeae complex within the ananassae subgroup. Both sex-linked NORs must have been lost in the lineage leading to D. varians and in the ananassae and bipectinata complexes, whereas new sites, characterized by intra-species variation in hybridization signal size, appeared on the fourth chromosome related to heterochromatic rearrangements. Nucleolar material is thought to be required for sex chromosome pairing and disjunction in a variety of organisms including Drosophila. Thus, either remnant sequences, possibly intergenic spacer repeats, are still present in the sex chromosomes which have lost their NORs (as observed in D. simulans and D. sechellia), or an alternative mechanism has evolved.

A new cytochrome P450 from Drosophila melanogaster, CYP4G15, expressed in the nervous system.

A novel cytochrome P450 was isolated from Drosophila melanogaster by PCR strategy with primers deduced from the crayfish Orconectes limosus CYP4C15 sequence, which is supposed to be involved in ecdysteroid biosynthesis. The full-length cDNA contains a 1980 bp open reading frame encoding a predicted protein of 574 amino acids and was designated CYP4G15. The corresponding gene is located at 10C1 on the X chromosome. The presence of a N-terminal segment mainly hydrophobic indicated that the corresponding enzyme is probably microsomal. In situ hybridization demonstrated predominant expression of CYP4G15 in the brain of third larval instar and Northern-blots showed no overexpression in insecticide resistant strain. This is the first indication of a specific P450 expressed in the central nervous system of Drosophila, and the putative function of the corresponding enzyme is discussed.