Drosophila simulans
Encyclopedia
Drosophila
simulans is a species of fly closely related to D. melanogaster
and which belongs to the same melanogaster species subgroup
. Its closest relatives are D. mauritiana and D. sechellia. This species was discovered by the fly geneticist Alfred Sturtevant
in 1919, when he noticed that the flies used in Thomas Hunt Morgan
's laboratory at the Columbia University
were actually two distinct species: D. melanogaster
and D. simulans. Males differ in the external genitalia, while trained observers can separate females using colour characteristics. D. melanogaster females crossed to D. simulans males produce sterile F1 females and no F1 males. The reciprocal cross produces sterile F1 males and no female progeny.
D. simulans was found later to be closely related to two island endemics, Drosophila sechellia and Drosophila mauritiana. D. simulans will mate with these sister species to form fertile females and sterile males, a fact that has made D. simulans an important model organism for research into speciation
.
Drosophila
Drosophila is a genus of small flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "fruit flies" or more appropriately pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species to linger around overripe or rotting fruit...
simulans is a species of fly closely related to D. melanogaster
Drosophila melanogaster
Drosophila melanogaster is a species of Diptera, or the order of flies, in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting from Charles W...
and which belongs to the same melanogaster species subgroup
Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup
The Drosophila melanogaster species subgroup contains 9 species, including the best known species Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans. The subgroup belongs to the Drosophila melanogaster species group within the subgenus Sophophora....
. Its closest relatives are D. mauritiana and D. sechellia. This species was discovered by the fly geneticist Alfred Sturtevant
Alfred Sturtevant
Alfred Henry Sturtevant was an American geneticist. Sturtevant constructed the first genetic map of a chromosome in 1913. Throughout his career he worked on the organism Drosophila melanogaster with Thomas Hunt Morgan...
in 1919, when he noticed that the flies used in Thomas Hunt Morgan
Thomas Hunt Morgan
Thomas Hunt Morgan was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and embryologist and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries relating the role the chromosome plays in heredity.Morgan received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in zoology...
's laboratory at the Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
were actually two distinct species: D. melanogaster
Drosophila melanogaster
Drosophila melanogaster is a species of Diptera, or the order of flies, in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting from Charles W...
and D. simulans. Males differ in the external genitalia, while trained observers can separate females using colour characteristics. D. melanogaster females crossed to D. simulans males produce sterile F1 females and no F1 males. The reciprocal cross produces sterile F1 males and no female progeny.
D. simulans was found later to be closely related to two island endemics, Drosophila sechellia and Drosophila mauritiana. D. simulans will mate with these sister species to form fertile females and sterile males, a fact that has made D. simulans an important model organism for research into speciation
Speciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise. The biologist Orator F. Cook seems to have been the first to coin the term 'speciation' for the splitting of lineages or 'cladogenesis,' as opposed to 'anagenesis' or 'phyletic evolution' occurring within lineages...
.