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First published online July 2, 2004
Journal of Experimental Biology 207, 2735-2743 (2004)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2004
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01087
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Heat induced male sterility in Drosophila melanogaster: adaptive genetic variations among geographic populations and role of the Y chromosome

Céline Rohmer, Jean R. David, Brigitte Moreteau and Dominique Joly*

CNRS–UPR 9034, Avenue de la Terrasse, Laboratoire Populations, Génétique et Evolution, F-91 198 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France

* Author for correspondence (e-mail: joly{at}pge.cnrs-gif.fr)

Accepted 12 May 2004

We analyzed genetic variation among geographically diverse populations of Drosophila and showed that tropical flies are more tolerant than temperate ones to heat-induced male sterility, as assessed by the presence of both motile sperm and progeny production. In tropical populations, the temperature inducing 50% sterility (median threshold) is 1°C above the value for temperate populations (30.4 vs. 29.4°C). When transferred to a mild permissive temperature (21°C), males recover fertility. Recovery time is proportional to pre-adult culture temperature. At these temperatures, recovery time is greater for temperate than for tropical populations. Crosses between a temperate and a tropical strain (F1, F2 and successive backcrosses) revealed that the Y chromosome was responsible for much of the geographic variation. Sterile males exhibited diverse abnormalities in the shape and position of sperm nuclei. However, impairment of the spermatid elongation seems to be the major factor responsible for sperm inviability. Heat-induced male sterility seems to be quite a general phenomenon in Drosophilid species and variation of threshold temperatures may be important for explaining their geographic distributions.

Key words: heat stress, geographic race, heat tolerance, spermatogenesis, climatic adaptation, Drosophila


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