The present study analyzed the drosophilid assemblages in different levels of urbanization in the city of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Collections were carried out in 2008 in three different environments: a highly urbanized area-"Jardim Botânico," a forested area with intermediary urbanization-"Parque Gabriel Knijnik," and in a relatively well-preserved forested area, although threatened by the urban growth-"Morro Santana." In Jardim Botânico, 36 species belonging to four genera were found, with high abundance of exotic species as Drosophila simulans Sturtevant and Zaprionus indianus (Gupta). In Parque Gabriel Knijnik, 33 species that belonged to four genera were found, with higher abundances of native species belonging to the Drosophila tripunctata species group and Drosophila willistoni species subgroup, and lower abundance of exotic species. As for Morro Santana, 32 species and three genera were found, with higher abundances of native groups, low representativeness of exotic species, and absence of Zaprionus indianus. The analysis of the Jaccard index showed higher similarity in the species composition between samples collected in summer and autumn, and between samples collected in winter and spring. On the other hand, the Morisita index differentiated Jardim Botânico from the other two studied sites. Our results show that Morro Santana is an important area of native biodiversity, reinforcing, therefore, the inclusion of this area in the project for the creation of an ecological corridor as proposed by the Ministry of the Environment of Brazil.

Comparative genomics in Drosophila began in 1940, when Muller stated that the ancestral haploid karyotype of this genus is constituted by five acrocentric chromosomes and one dot chromosome, named A to F elements. In some species of the willistoni group such as Drosophila willistoni and D. insularis, the F element, instead of a dot chromosome, has been incorporated into the E element, forming chromosome III (E + F fusion). The aim of this study was to investigate the scope of the E + F fusion in the willistoni group, evaluating six other species. Fluorescent in situ hybridization was used to locate two genes of the F element previously studied-cubitus interruptus (ci) and eyeless (ey)-in species of the willistoni and bocainensis subgroups. Moreover, polytene chromosome photomaps corresponding to the F element (basal portion of chromosome III) were constructed for each species studied. In D. willistoni, D. paulistorum and D. equinoxialis, the ci gene was located in subSectction 78B and the ey gene in 78C. In D. tropicalis, ci was located in subSection 76B and ey in 76C. In species of the bocainensis subgroup, ci and ey were localized, respectively, at subsections 76B and 76C in D. nebulosa and D. capricorni, and 76A and 76C in D. fumipennis. Despite the differences in the subsection numbers, all species showed the same position for ci and ey. The results confirm the synteny of E + F fusion in willistoni and bocainensis subgroups, and allow estimating the occurrence of this event at 15 Mya, at least.

Drosophila willistoni is a geographically widespread Neotropical species. The genome of strain Gd-H4-1 from Guadeloupe Island (Caribbean) was sequenced in 2007 as part of the 12 Drosophila Genomes Project. The assembled scaffolds were joined based on conserved linkage and assigned to polytene chromosomes based on a handful of genetic and physical markers. This paucity of markers was particularly striking in the metacentric chromosome II, comprised two similarly sized arms, IIL and IIR, traditionally considered homologous to Muller elements C and B, respectively. In this paper we present the cytological mapping of 22 new gene markers to increase the number of markers mapped by in situ hybridization and to test the assignment of scaffolds to the polytene chromosome II arms. For this purpose, we generated, by polymerase chain reaction amplification, one or two gene probes from each scaffold assigned to the chromosome II arms and mapped these probes to the Gd-H4-1 strain’s polytene chromosomes by nonfluorescent in situ hybridization. Our findings show that chromosome arms IIL and IIR correspond to Muller elements B and C, respectively, directly contrasting the current homology assignments in D. willistoni and constituting a major reassignment of the scaffolds to chromosome II arms.

High rates of chromosomal rearrangements are remarkably abundant in Drosophila Fallén, 1832 (Insecta, Diptera) genus, highlighting the paracentric inversions. Since different species of this genus are paradigms for genetics, evolutionary, and population studies, polymorphism analyses for chromosomal inversions have provided basic knowledge for beautiful biological questions. Chromosomal inversions suppress meiotic recombination and thus, natural selection can act to preserve favorable gene complexes. Analyses of natural and laboratory populations show that these polymorphisms provide adaptive advantages to their carriers in relation to diverse factors, such as niche exploration and climatic factors. In addition, due to their monophyletic origin, they also serve as genetic markers for the construction of unrooted phylogenies. With the increasing domain of molecular techniques and genome sequencing, factors such as the reuse of breakpoints by different inversions and the mechanisms that give rise to these polymorphisms have been exploited with scientific refinement. These analyses show the presence of regions that are hot spots for breakpoints, fitting the fragile breakage chromosomal evolution model, as well as the involvement of transposition elements at the origin of chromosomal inversions.

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Kathryn Moeller. 2018. The Gender Effect: Capitalism, Feminism, and the Corporate Politics of Development. Oakland, CA. University of California Press.

In the wake of feminist social movements of Latin American cities, we highlight as an object of analysis the posters that express against institutionalized machismo. The locus of effectuation of those marches should not be lessened: they take place in the space where power relations are produced and reproducethe city. In this scenario, Agrest (1988) observes a suppression of the feminine, in a broader sense, thinking of built space of the modern architecture and urbanism, suggesting that both a materiality and its inherent logic of urban public spaces corroborate for the perpetuation of social relations that are, as mentioned, always given by and through the space. Yet, paradoxically, the city remains the scene of the public expression of the feminist struggle par excellence: when they move to the urban space, where they are ideologically suppressed, women produce resistances against hegemonic discursive order in front of the dominant structures which determine the urban relations of oppression. Thus, the present work proposes a look at protest posters and protests such as "Ni una Menos", by making dissident speeches, aligned with the logic of Nancy Fraser's "counter-publics", contesting systemic inequalities of gender. These posters show that the urban public space is disputed politically and discursively, causing significant contestations to the patriarchal order.