Fruit fly evolution gives way to new wasp species

OCTOBER 31, 2015

by Chuck Bednar

   

It’s the evolutionary version of the domino effect: ongoing changes in one species of fruit fly have played a key role in the rise of three new types of predatory wasps, according to research published earlier this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the new study, biologists from Rice University, the University of Notre Dame, Michigan State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Florida explained that they were looking at the “apple maggot,” a fruit fly species known as Rhagoletis pomonella, that previous work had found was becoming two different species due to feeding and mating habit changes.

That evolutionary split is driven by differently timed fruiting cycles between apple trees, which the study authors explained are preferred by some Rhagoletis, and the North American hawthorn, where the fruit flies had traditionally laid their eggs. The new study expands on that earlier work to investigate the impact of those changes on wasps known to be parasites for Rhagoletis.

Specimens from three different species of wasp were collected from various different fruit fly host plants in the wild. Analysis of those wasps revealed that just like Rhagoletis, they were in the process of diverging into different species, distinct both in terms of their genes and in terms of host-associated physiology and behavior.

One good evolutionary adaptation deserves another

Study co-author Scott Egan, an evolutionary biologist and assistant professor of biosciences at Rice, explained in a statement that the study “addresses one of the central questions in biology: How do new forms of life originate?” He added that it examines “sequential speciation,” a type of evolutionary process that recognizes that adaptation is not an isolated process.

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How The Fruit Fly Could Help Us Sniff Out Drugs And Bombs

October 17, 2014

Provided by Jacqui Bealing, University of Sussex

A fly’s sense of smell could be used in new technology to detect drugs and bombs, new University of Sussex research has found.

Brain scientist Professor Thomas Nowotny was surprised to find that the ‘nose’ of fruit flies can identify odors from illicit drugs and explosive substances almost as accurately as wine odor, which the insects are naturally attracted to because it smells like their favorite food, fermenting fruit.

Published October 15 in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, the study brings scientists closer to developing electronic noses (e-noses) that closely replicate the sensitive olfactory sense of animals.

The hope is that such e-noses will be much more sensitive and much faster than the currently commercially available e-noses that are typically based on metal-oxide sensors and are very slow, compared to a biological nose.

Professor Nowotny, Professor of Informatics at the University of Sussex, led the study alongside researchers from Monash University and CSIRO in Australia. He said: “Dogs can smell drugs and people have trained bees to detect explosives. Here we are looking more for what it is in the nose – which receptors – that allows animals to do this.

“In looking at fruit flies, we have found that, contrary to our expectation, unfamiliar odors, such as from explosives, were not only recognized but broadly recognized with the same accuracy as odors more relevant to a fly’s behavior.”

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What singing fruit flies can tell us about quick decisions

Date:

March 20, 2014

Source:

Princeton University

Summary:

The pitch and tempo of the male fruit fly's mating song is based on environmental cues rather than a stereotyped pattern, researchers have discovered. These findings could be substantial for understanding rapid decision-making in more advanced beings such as humans.

Continued

In Fly DNA, the Footprint of a Fly Virus

ScienceDaily (Aug. 1, 2012) — In a curious evolutionary twist, several species of a commonly studied fruit fly appear to have incorporated genetic material from a virus into their genomes, according to new research by University at Buffalo biologists.

The study found that several types of fruit fly -- scientific name Drosophila -- harbored genes similar to those that code for the sigma virus, a fly virus in the same family as rabies. The authors believe the genetic information was acquired during past viral infections and passed on from fruit fly parent to offspring through many generations.

The discovery could open the door for research on why flies and other organisms selectively retain viral genes -- dubbed "fossil" genes -- through evolution, said lead author Matthew Ballinger, a PhD candidate in UB's Department of Biological Sciences.

One hypothesis is that viral genes provide an anti-viral defense, but scientists have had trouble testing this theory because viral genes found in animals are often millions of years old -- ancient enough that the genes' genetic sequence differs significantly from that of modern-day viruses.


Continued: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120801132725.htm