Characterization of the chemoreceptor repertoire of a highly specialized fly with comparisons to other Drosophila species.

Abstract

To explore the diversity of scenarios in nature, animals have evolved tools to interact with different environmental conditions. Chemoreceptors are an important interface component and among them, olfactory receptors (ORs) and gustatory receptors (GRs) can be used to find food and detect healthy resources. Drosophila is a model organism in many scientific fields, in part due to the diversity of species and niches they occupy. The contrast between generalists and specialists Drosophila species provides an important model for studying the evolution of chemoreception. Here, we compare the repertoire of chemoreceptors of different species of Drosophila with that of D. incompta, a highly specialized species whose ecology is restricted to Cestrum flowers, after reporting the preferences of D. incompta to the odor of Cestrum flowers in olfactory tests. We found evidence that the chemoreceptor repertoire in D. incompta is smaller than that presented by species in the Sophophora subgenus. Similar patterns were found in other non-Sophophora species, suggesting the presence of underlying phylogenetic trends. Nevertheless, we also found autapomorphic gene losses and detected some genes that appear to be under positive selection in D. incompta, suggesting that the specific lifestyle of these flies may have shaped the evolution of individual genes in each of these gene families.