IN VIVO FUNCTION OF RARE G6pd VARIANTS FROM NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Abstract

From 1981 to 1983, 15,097 X-chromosomes were genetically extracted from a number of North American populations of D. melanogaster and were electrophoretically screened for rare mobility and activity variants of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD). Overall, 13 rare variants were recovered for a frequency of about 10-3. Eleven variants affect electrophoretic mobility and are apparently structural, and two variants exhibit low G6PD activity. One low activity variant is closely associated with a P-element insertion at 18D12-13—all of the variants were subjected to the previously described genetic scheme used to identify relative in vivo activity differences between the two common electrophoretic variants associated with the global polymorphism. Most of the rare variants exhibit apparent in vivo activities that are similar to one or the other of the common variants, and these specific rare variants appear to be geographically widespread. Several variants have significantly reduced function. All of the variants were measured for larval specific activity for G6PD as a first measure of in vitro activity. It appears that specific activity alone is not a sufficient predictor for G6PD in vivo function.

Evolutionary responses of energy metabolism, development, and reproduction to artificial selection for increasing heat tolerance inDrosophila subobscura

“…These findings suggest that the evolution of functional and structural properties of the enzymes associated with energy metabolism are sensitive to environmental temperatures. Moreover, different haplotypes associated with G6P branchpoint can differentially influence the energy flux in a particular metabolic pathway (Eanes & Hey, 1986;Zera, 1987;Verrelli & Eanes, 2001), but also affect the flux in parallel metabolic pathways, facilitating correlated responses among fitness-related traits under stressful conditions (Zera & Zhao, 2003a).…”