EVOLUTION & DEVELOPMENT 9:4, 368–377 (2007) Variation in fiber number of a male-specific muscle between Drosophila species: a genetic and developmental analysis Virginie Orgogozo,a,1,Ã Noelle M. Muro,a and David L. Sterna aDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA ÃAuthor for correspondence (email:
[email protected]) 1Present address: Universite´ Pierre et Marie Curie, Baˆt. A, 5e`me etage, case 29, 7 Quai Saint Bernard, 75005 Paris, France SUMMARY We characterize a newly discovered comparison of MOL development indicates that the species morphological difference between species of the Drosophila difference appears during metamorphosis. We mapped the melanogaster subgroup. The muscle of Lawrence (MOL) quantitative trait loci responsible for the change in muscle fiber contains about four to five fibers in D. melanogaster and number between D. sechellia and D. simulans to two genomic Drosophila simulans and six to seven fibers in Drosophila regions on chromosome 2. Our data eliminate the possibility of mauritiana and Drosophila sechellia. The same number of evolving mutations in the fruitless gene and suggest that a nuclei per fiber is present in these species but their total change in the twist might be partly responsible for this number of MOL nuclei differs. This suggests that the number evolutionary change. of muscle precursor cells has changed during evolution. Our INTRODUCTION Elucidating the molecular mechanisms that determine the total number of fibers within a skeletal muscle is of Contractile organs filled with myofibrils of actin and myosin fundamental importance for agriculture. For more than a that slide across each other, known as muscles, are present in hundred years, cattle with greatly enlarged muscles have all Bilateria.