Assessing the potential spread of Zaprionus tuberculatus (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in the Americas: insights for proactive management and agricultural protection.

Invasive species pose significant ecological and economic threats globally. Zaprionus tuberculatus Malloch, a drosophilid fruit fly native to the Afrotropical region and Indian Ocean islands, is included in the pest list of the Center for Agriculture and Bioscience (CABI) because it uses fruit as breeding sites and can damage cultivated areas. This fly species extended its range across Europe in the late 20th century; in 2020, it was recorded in South America, and currently, it is widely distributed in Brazil.

Thermal Stress and Adult Fitness in a Drosophila suzukii Neotropical Propagule.

Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura 1931) is a cosmopolitan horticultural pest originally from temperate East Asia; yet, its recent introduction in southeast and central Brazil raises the possibility it might expand into warmer climatic zones. In theoretical terms, the adaptive potential of invasive species can be impaired by the lack of genetic variation, but, on the other hand, phenotypic plasticity might play an important role in the adaptation to the new environment. In this context, we investigated the effects of temperature variation (18°C, 22°C, and 28°C) on fitness traits and size of male reproductive organs (accessory glands and testis) in a natural D.

Genetic variability and phenotypic plasticity of metric thoracic traits in an invasive drosophilid in America.

Thermal phenotypic plasticity of 5 metric thoracic traits (3 related to size and 2 to pigmentation) was investigated in Zaprionus indianus with an isofemale line design. Three of these traits are investigated for the first time in a drosophilid, i.e.

Cellular basis of morphological variation and temperature-related plasticity in Drosophila melanogaster strains with divergent wing shapes.

Organ shape evolves through cross-generational changes in developmental patterns at cellular and/or tissue levels that ultimately alter tissue dimensions and final adult proportions. Here, we investigated the cellular basis of an artificially selected divergence in the outline shape of Drosophila melanogaster wings, by comparing flies with elongated or rounded wing shapes but with remarkably similar wing sizes. We also tested whether cellular plasticity in response to developmental temperature was altered by such selection.

Getting real with real-time qPCR: a case study of reference gene selection for morphological variation in Drosophila melanogaster wings.

Accurate estimation of gene expression differences during development requires sensitive techniques combined with gold-standard normalization procedures. This is particularly true in the case of quantitative traits, where expression changes might be small. Nevertheless, systematic selection and validation of reference genes has been overlooked, even in Drosophila studies.

An interspecific QTL study of Drosophila wing size and shape variation to investigate the genetic basis of morphological differences.

The Drosophila wing has been used as a model in studies of morphogenesis and evolution; the use of such models can contribute to our understanding of mechanisms that promote morphological divergence among populations and species. We mapped quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting wing size and shape traits using highly inbred introgression lines between D. simulans and D.

Diversity and pathogenic potential of vibrios isolated from Abrolhos Bank corals.

We performed the first taxonomic characterization of vibrios and other culturable microbiota from apparently healthy and diseased Brazilian-endemic corals at the Abrolhos reef bank. The diseases affecting corals were tissue necrosis in Phyllogorgia dillatata, white plague and bleaching in Mussismilia braziliensis and bleaching in Mussismilia hispida. Bacterial isolates were obtained from mucus of 22 coral specimens originated from the Abrolhos Bank (i.

Phenotypic variability of natural populations of an invasive drosophilid, Zaprionus indianus, on different continents: comparison of wild-living and laboratory-grown flies.

Phenotypic variability in nature is the most important feature for Darwinian adaptation, yet it has been rarely investigated in invasive species. Zaprionus indianus is an Afrotropical drosophilid species that have recently invaded the Palearctic and the Neotropical regions. Here, we compared the variability of three size-related traits and one meristic trait the sternopleural (STP) bristle number, between wild-collected flies living under different conditions: a stressful Mediterranean environment in Egypt, and a benign tropical environment in Brazil.

Mesosternal bristle number in a cosmopolitan drosophilid: an X-linked variable trait independent of sternopleural bristles.

Mesosternal (MS) bristles in Drosophila are a pair of machrochaetae found at the sternal end of the sternopleural (STP) microchaetae, and are thought to be invariable. In a closely related drosophilid genus, Zaprionus, their number is four and, in contrast to Drosophila, they show interspecific and intraspecific variability. The genetic basis of MS bristle number variability was studied in Z.

Sexual dimorphism of body size and sternopleural bristle number: a comparison of geographic populations of an invasive cosmopolitan drosophilid.

Zaprionus indianus is a cosmopolitan drosophilid, of Afrotropical origin, which has recently colonized South America. The sexual dimorphism (SD) of body size is low, males being almost as big as females. We investigated 10 natural populations, 5 from America and 5 from Africa, using the isofemale line technique.

Variability of wing size and shape in three populations of a recent Brazilian invader, Zaprionus indianus (Diptera: Drosophilidae), from different habitats.

Zaprionus indianus (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is an African species that was introduced in Brazil near the end of the 1990's decade. To evaluate the adaptive potential of morphological traits in natural populations of this recently introduced species, we have investigated wing size and shape variation at Rio de Janeiro populations only two years after the first record of Z. indianus in Brazil.

Quantitative trait analysis and geographic variability of natural populations of Zaprionus indianus, a recent invader in Brazil.

Five natural samples of a recent South America invader, the drosophilid Zaprionus indianus, were investigated with the isofemale line technique. These samples were compared to five African mainland populations, investigated with the same method. The results were also compared to data obtained on mass cultures of other populations from Africa and India.

Genetic architecture of wing morphology in Drosophila simulans and an analysis of temperature effects on genetic parameter estimates.

The Drosophila wing has been used as a model to investigate the mechanisms responsible for size and shape changes in nature, since such changes might underlie morphological evolution. To improve the understanding of wing morphological variation and the interpretation of genetic parameters estimates, we have established 59 lines from a Drosophila simulans laboratory population through single pair random matings. The offspring of each line were reared at three different temperatures, and the wing morphology of 12 individuals was analyzed by adjusting an ellipse to the wings' contour.

Heritability, phenotypic and genetic correlations of size and shape of Drosophila mediopunctata wings.

We have studied the morphology of wings of Drosophila mediopunctata employing the ellipse method, a procedure that allows precise descriptions of wing size (SI), wing shape outline (SH), and placement of longitudinal wing veins. We have found that the SH and the points which determine the position of the apices of the third, fourth and fifth longitudinal wing veins show high heritability in nature (the lower bound for the natural heritability is above 0.25).

Plasticity of Drosophila melanogaster wing morphology: effects of sex, temperature and density.

In this paper we use an adjusted ellipse to the contour of the wings of Drosophila as an experimental model to study phenotypic plasticity. The geometric properties of the ellipse describe the wing morphology. Size is the geometric mean of its two radii; shape is the ratio between them; and, the positions of the apexes of the longitudinal veins are determined by their angular distances to the major axis of the ellipse.

Size and shape heritability in natural populations of Drosophila mediopunctata: temporal and microgeographical variation.

'Traditional morphometrics' allows us to decompose morphological variation into its major independent sources, identifying them usually as size and shape. To compare and investigate the properties of size and shape in natural populations of Drosophila mediopunctata, estimating their heritabilities and analysing their temporal and microgeographic changes, we carried out collections on seven occasions in Parque Nacional do Itatiaia, Brazil. In one of these collections, we took samples from five different altitudes.

Variation and heritability of aristal morphology in a natural population of Drosophila mediopunctata.

We studied the major sources influencing the variation of the number of aristal branches in a natural population of Drosophila mediopunctata. Flies were collected on six occasions at different altitudes in Parque Nacional do Itatiaia (Brazil). The progenies of these flies were reared in the laboratory at 16.

Morphological variation in a natural population of Drosophila mediopunctata: altitudinal cline, temporal changes and influence of chromosome inversions.

To characterize the morphological variation in a natural population of Drosophila mediopunctata, males were collected on three occasions at a single locality. From each wild-caught male 14 body measures were taken and the karyotype for inversions on chromosomes X and II was determined. Through a principal components analysis, two sources of variation, identified as size and shape, accounted for approximately 80 and 6 per cent of the total morphological variability, respectively.