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Investigating the Role of Fruitless in Behavioural Isolation Between Drosophila Melanogaster and Drosophila Simulans

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Investigating the Role of Fruitless in Behavioural Isolation Between Drosophila Melanogaster and Drosophila Simulans Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 8-22-2017 10:00 AM Investigating the Role of Fruitless in Behavioural Isolation Between Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans Jalina Bielaska Da Silva The Unviersity of Western Ontario Supervisor Amanda J. Moehring The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Biology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Science © Jalina Bielaska Da Silva 2017 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons Recommended Citation Bielaska Da Silva, Jalina, "Investigating the Role of Fruitless in Behavioural Isolation Between Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans" (2017). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4779. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4779 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract Behavioural isolation is a prezygotic mechanism that is usually determined by female preference, such as seen with the rejection behaviour exhibited by Drosophila simulans females to D. melanogaster males. To confirm the role of a previously identified candidate gene fruitless (fru) in behavioural isolation, I proposed to disrupt fru expression in both D. melanogaster and D. simulans to allow for the generation of interspecies hybrids expressing only a species-specific allele of fru. A reciprocal hemizygosity test would then be used to confirm the role of fru in behavioural isolation. Disruptions of fru in both D. melanogaster and D. simulans through the CRISPR/Cas9 system were not achieved, however, a mutation was generated in the fru common region exon C4 in D. melanogaster. This mutation did not have an effect on mating behaviour, suggesting that the C4 exon in fru does not seem to have a role in female mate preference or male courtship. Keywords Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila simulans, speciation, behavioural isolation, female species-specific mating behaviour, fruitless, CRISPR/Cas9, reciprocal hemizygosity test Co-Authorship Statement I performed all the experimental procedures and drafted the written thesis. Melissa Wong contributed to half of the results to one injection experiment: testing survivability with wire- and-tape dechorionation after injections. Dr. Amanda Moehring made intellectual contributions to experimental design and editorial comments for this thesis. ii Acknowledgments This project would not have been possible without the support of many people. Firstly, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity given to me by my supervisor Amanda. She saw potential in me as a fourth year and let me stay for another two years to work on a project I loved. I am extremely grateful for her support during the stressful days, her commitment to passing on knowledge, and her advice, which has allowed me to grow in my academics. I would also like to thank my advisors: Dr. Anne Simon, for her support and advice on this project, and Dr. Anthony Percival-Smith, for his advice regarding CRISPR/Cas9 and microinjections. A very special shout out to all current and past members of the Moehring lab, thank you for being there for the highs and lows, especially: Rachelle, Ryan, Tabashir, Caryn, Melissa, Heather, and Pria. Wouldn’t have made it without those Fly Cave chats. I would especially like to thank Tabashir Chowdhury for showing me the ropes of the lab. I am also eternally grateful to my volunteer Cindy. If she were not around to help me, I would probably still be genotyping flies. Lastly, I thank my parents, my boyfriend, and my friends for all their love and support during these past two years. Mom and Dad, thanks for supporting and understanding my determination to stay in school forever. Zach, thanks for encouraging me to work hard, to love what I do, and being there for every aspect of this adventure. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Co-Authorship Statement .................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii List of Appendices .............................................................................................................. x List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... xi 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Speciation and behavioural isolation ...................................................................... 1 1.2 Drosophila as a model for behavioural isolation .................................................... 4 1.2.1 Drosophila courtship and mating behaviour ............................................... 5 1.2.2 Behavioural isolation in Drosophila ........................................................... 6 1.2.3 Commonly-used genetic tools in Drosophila ........................................... 10 1.2.4 Deficiency mapping ................................................................................. 12 1.3. The fruitless gene in D. melanogaster .................................................................. 15 1.3.1 fruitless in the sex determination pathway ................................................ 15 1.3.2 fruitless: a complex gene .......................................................................... 18 1.3.3 fruitless and behaviour .............................................................................. 21 1.4 Goal: Confirming the involvement of fruitless in female rejection behaviour ..... 22 1.5 Experimental approach ......................................................................................... 23 1.5.1 Reciprocal hemizygosity test with fruitless disruption to confirm its role 23 1.5.2 CRISPR/Cas9 system ................................................................................ 25 1.5.3 Repairing DSBs ........................................................................................ 30 iv 1.5.4 Overview .................................................................................................. 32 2 Materials and Methods ................................................................................................. 34 2.1 Fly husbandry ........................................................................................................ 34 2.2 CRISPR constructs and sgRNA transcription ....................................................... 34 2.3 Egg collection ....................................................................................................... 37 2.3.1 Egg collection with bleach dechorionation ............................................... 37 2.3.2 Egg collection without dechorionation ..................................................... 37 2.4 Microinjection and screening mutations .............................................................. 38 2.4.1 Injections for targeted fru mutations ......................................................... 40 2.4.2 Crosses and genotyping for fru mutations ................................................ 40 2.4.3 Injections and screening for fst mutations ................................................ 44 2.4.4 Injections and screening y mutations ........................................................ 44 2.5 Behavioural mating assays ................................................................................... 46 2.5.1 Male behavioural sterility assay ................................................................ 46 2.5.2 Female receptivity behavioural mating assay ........................................... 46 3 Results .......................................................................................................................... 48 3.1 Testing injection protocols: survivability of eggs ................................................. 48 3.2 Transcription of sgRNA ........................................................................................ 53 3.3 Screening injected flies for CRISPR/Cas9 germline mutations ........................... 55 3.3.1 D. melanogaster control injections targeting fst and y ............................. 55 3.3.2 D. melanogaster injections targeting fru .................................................. 59 3.3.3 D. simulans injections targeting fru .......................................................... 63 3.4 Protein analysis of fru deletion in D. melanogaster ............................................. 65 3.5. Conservation of the common region amino acid sequence between Drosophila species ..................................................................................................................
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