Temperature, urbanization and body color polymorphism in south brazilian populations of Drosophila kikkawai (Diptera, Drosophilidae)

• Autor(a) principal: Costa, Bartira Ercília Pinheiro da
• Data de Publicação: 2003
• Outros Autores: Rohde, Claudia, Gaiesky, Vera Lúcia da Silva Valente
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10183/23044
• topic: Drosophila kikkawai; Polimorfismo cromático; Genética de populações; Drosophila; Urban populations; Color polymorphism; Temperature

Body color polymorphism of urban populations of cosmopolite fly Drosophila kikkawai Burla, 1954 was investigated in relation to its possible association with environmental temperature. Samples of D. kikkawai were collected in spring, summer, autumn and winter between 1987 to 1988, in zones with different levels of urbanization in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. A clear association was observed between darker flies and both seasons with low temperatures and areas of low urbanization (where temperature is generally lower than in urbanized areas). Results of preliminary laboratory experiments involving six generations of flies grown in chambers at temperatures of 17o and 25oC confirmed this tendency to a relationship between body color and temperature, with allele frequency of the main gene involved in body pigmentation