Fertile flies: shorter lives

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

By reviewing the latest discovery of Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS, about the newly evolved gene CG11700 in drosophila, you will have to agree that “there is no free lunch” definitely is an iron rule. When the drosophila with null mutations of CG11700 have been proudly bestowed with high male fecundity, partial of their lifespan also have been deprived mercilessly.  CG32744 and CG11700 are a pair of newly evolved X-linked polyubiquitin tandemly duplicated genes, of which the duplication event occurred in the Drosophila melanogaster lineage after the split from the D. simulans clade (approximately 5.8 million years ago). Like most of the other drosophila novel evolved functional genes, they are also male-biased. Gene duplication and subsequent functional divergence have long been recognized as the most important mechanism for the origin of evolutionary novelties. In general, there are two fates of functional divergence of duplicated genes: (1) subfunctionalization, in which duplicated genes respectively partition regulatory patterns or functions of the ancestral gene; and (2) neofunctionalization, in which one copy acquires a novel function. According to this research, CG11700 obviously could be documented into the latter, whereas CG32744 has retained the ancestral function.　 The cost of reproduction is a pivotal trade-off with various biological processes during the evolution of organisms. In human society, women’s burden of reproduction is somehow much heavier than men's. But in the wild, sometimes, the price of reproduction is so high for males that they have to sacrifice themselves, like the sexual cannibalism in mantis. However, the genes and mechanisms underlying the evolution of a balance between the reproductive capability and its cost are still largely unknown. Here, CG11700 has been presented as the trade-off in the balance of the cost of drosophila reproduction. In this study, a story about the evolution, expression, and biological functions of CG11700 and CG32744 have been vividly narrated. But they are only an example of the whole bunch of identified newly evolved duplicated drosophila genes. Among those genes, some are really famous, like a sphinx named after the monster with a human head, lion body and angel wings. The drosophila with sphinx mutation could be invited to star in “broke back mountains” as they are homo already. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.