The Direction of Evolution in the Drosophila Rnelanogaster Species Subgroup Based on Functional Analysis of the Crystal Cells T
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THE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY 212: 323-328 11980) The Direction of Evolution in the Drosophila rnelanogaster Species Subgroup Based on Functional Analysis of the Crystal Cells T. M. RIZKI AND ROSE M. RIZKI Department of Zoology, Division of Biological Sciences, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 ABSTRACT The crystal cells in the hemolymph of Drosophila melanogaster contain paracrystalline inclusions and phenol oxidase. Melanization of this type of blood cell can be induced by treatment of larvae with hot water. By using this functional criterion to establish cell homology we compared the shape of the inclusions in the crystal cells of the D. melanogaster species subgroup and a number of distantly related species of Drosophila. The crystal cell inclusions in four of the sibling species (simulans, erecta, mauritiana, yakuba) are the same as those found in D. melanogaster. In the fifth species, D. teissieri, the crystal cell inclusions resemble those found in the hemocytes of the other larval drosophilids that were examined rather than those of D. melanogaster. On the basis of these observations and the phylogenetic relationships deduced from analysis of chromosomal inversions by Lemeunier and Ashburner ('76), we propose that D. teissieri is closer to the ancestral form or is the ancestral species of the melanogaster species subgroup of Drosowhila. This is the first instance in which a hemocyte type has been used to determine the direction of evolution within a subgroup of insect species. The larval hemolymph of Drosophila melan- in this mutant are melanized, the phenol ox- ogaster contains two classes of hemocytes, idase within them is destroyed; hence Bc lar- plasmatocytes and crystal cells (Rizki, '57a). vae lack phenol oxidase activity. Furthermore, Plasmatocytes differentiate into podocyte and melanization of the crystal cells in Bc+ larvae lamellocyte variants but the crystal cells, can be induced by hot water treatment, and comprising 5-1096 of the larval hemocyte pop- the distribution of heat-induced black cells in ulation, remain uniquely distinguishable by these larvae mimics the distribution of black their prominent paracrystalline inclusions. cells in Bc mutant larvae. From this series of Such cytoplasmic structures have not, to our observations it is clear that two methods can knowledge, been reported in the blood cells of be used to identify crystal cells in D. melano- other insects or even other species of Droso- gaster: structurally, on the basis of their par- phila. Yet the function ascribed to these cells, acrystalline inclusions; and functionally, by storage of the components involved in hemo- hot water treatment to blacken them. Utiliz- lymph phenol oxidase activity (Rizki and Riz- ing these criteria we examined the hemocytes ki, '59), is a common attribute of insect hem- of a number of sibling species of D. melano- olymph. gaster and some other members of the family Studies on a recently isolated mutant gene, Drosophilidae. For the latter group, no effort Black cells (Bc, 2-80.621, agree with the lo- was made to be exhaustive; we used species calization of hemolymph phenol oxidase activ- that were available in our laboratory. The five ity to the crystal cells (Rizki and Rizki, '79a; sibling species of D. melanogaster used are Rizki et al., submitted for publication). Blood those studied by Lemeunier and Ashburner cells with paracrystalline inclusions are ab- ('76). The present report summarizes these sent in Bc larvae that contain instead melan- findings on Drosophila hemocytes and sug- ized cells in the hemolymph and lymph glands, gests that analysis of hemocyte types may be suggesting that the blackened cells are a mu- useful in delineating phylogenetic relation- tant form of the crystal cells. When the cells ships in Drosophila. 0022-104X/80/2123-0323$01.40CG 1980 ALAN R. LISS, INC. 323 324 T.M.RIZKI AND R.M. RIZKI MATERIALS AND METHODS from those found in D. melanogaster crystal, The sibling species used for this study were: cells, and representative crystal cells from D. melanogaster (Ore-R wild type), D. erecta these four species are included (Fig. 1).There (154.1), D. simulans (C135.20), D. yakuba are variations in size of the paracrystalline (115), D. teissieri (128.2), and D. mauritiana. inclusions, and the number of inclusions per The other species examined were: D. pseu- cell also differs among crystal cells taken from doobscura, D. virilis, D. novamexicam, D. wil- the same hemolymph sample. Cells similar to listoni, D. nebulosa, D. buskii, and Zaprionus the four cells in this plate, each taken from a uittiger. different sibling species, can all be found in a All larvae were grown on cream of wheat single sample taken from any one of the sib- medium with live yeast at 18°C except Za- ling species, including D. melanogaster. Treat- prionus larvae, which were grown on corn ment with hot water blackened the cells with meal-agar medium and D. buskii larvae, crystals in the four sibling species. which were grown on medium containing flax Figure 2 contains photographs of crystal seed. Mid-third instar larvae were washed cells from D. teissieri, another sibling species with 1.2% NaClO and rinsed well with dis- of D. melanogaster. The inclusions in these tilled H,O to remove extraneous food particles cells lack the general rectangular appearance from the body surface. Larvae were opened by found in the crystal cells of the other five tearing the body wall, taking care not to species of the melanogaster subgroup of Dro- rupture internal organs, and allowing the sophila. They appear chunky and globular. hemolymph to flow into a small drop of buff- The inclusions are quantitatively variable but ered formaldehyde (2.3% in phosphate buffer none of the inclusions resemble those found in at pH 7.2). After 4 minutes dilute Giemsa the other sibling species. That these cells are stain was added to the hemolymph sample, functionally similar to the crystal cells of the and the stained cells were examined. At least other melanogaster sibling species can be dem- five camera lucida drawings of crystal cells onstrated by immersion of the larvae in hot were made for each species to assure that water, for they respond to this treatment pre- variations in shape and size of the inclusions cisely as do the crystal cells. were recorded. In all the larvae from outside the melano- To establish the functional identity of the gaster species subgroup the hemocytes with cells with inclusions, larvae were immersed in inclusions resembled those found in D. teissieri hot water at 70°C. When blackening of hem- rather than those found in D. melanogaster ocytes became apparent, the treated larvae (Fig. 3). There were size and quantitative were examined either directly under trans- variations, but none similar to the melanogas- mitted light (compound microscope: 12.5 x 16 ter type were found. For each species the or 12.5 x 25 magnification), or the larvae functional relationship to the melanogaster were opened in Carnoy fixative and tissues crystal cell was established by hot water treat- with attached darkened cells were processed ment. and examined. The cytoplasmic inclusions are DISCUSSION still visible in the cells that are only lightly This report is the first attempt to use a tanned, so the cells were not permitted to functional criterion for classification of a spe- blacken fully. The inclusions in the melanizing cific hemocyte type in the genus Drosophila. cells and in the stained preparations were Classification of insect hemocytes relies pri- compared. marily on morphological characteristics, so categorization of cells to a common class RESULTS among different insects is possible only when The cytoplasmic inclusions in the crystal there are distinctly comparable structural cells of D. melanogaster have a strikingly traits. To draw analogies in the absence of regular shape. The two longer sides of the such similarity or in the absence of informa- structures appear parallel with ends that are tion on the functions of a given cell type is either rectangular or conical. Since photo- unwise, since hemocytes display morphologi- graphs of D. melanogaster crystal cells have cal variations in response to physiological been published previously (Rizki and Rizki, changes in the hemolymph; they also show '591, none are included here. However, the variations during their own stages of devel- paracrystalline inclusions in four of the sib- opment (Rizki, '78). D. melanogaster with its ling species, D. simulans, D. mauritiana, D. many mutant strains has been exceptionally yakuba, and D. erecta are indistinguishable useful for studying hemocyte interrelation- CRYSTAL CELIS IN DROSOPHILA 325 Fig. 1. Morphology of the paracrystalline inclusions in the crystal cells of: a, D. simulans; b, D. mauritiana; c, D. yakuba; d, D. erecta. Fig. 2. Crystal cells of D. teissien. 326 T.M. RIZKI AND R.M. MZKI Fig. 3. Crystal cells of: a, D. willistoni; b, D. psedoobscum; c, D.novamexicam; d, Zapriow uittiger. ships: melanotic tumor strains provided the morphologically similar” although Rizki and material for studying the plasmatocytes and Rizki (’59) did not “analogize the crystalloid their morphological variants (Rizki, ’57b; Riz- cells ofD. willistoni” with the crystal cells in ki and Rizki, ’79b); the Bc mutant confirmed D. melanogaster. From the present study it is the crystal cell as the source of hemolymph clear that the crystal cells in D. melanogaster phenol oxidase activity and lead to a simple are analogous to the cells in D. willistoni technique for releasing melanization in the described as spheroidocytes (Rizki, ’53); there crystal cells of Bc’ larvae (Rizki and Rizki, is as yet no information suggesting a relation- ’79a). With the latter method hemocytes that ship, if any, between the crystalloid cells of D. are not otherwise readily comparable by mor- willistoni and the crystal cells of D.