Natural Variation in a Drosophila Clock Gene and Temperature Compensation

作者：L Sawyer, J. Michael Hennessy, Alexandre Afrânio Peixoto, Ezio Rosato, Helen E. Parkinson, Rodolfo Costa, Charalambos Panayiotis Kyriacou · 发表于：Science · 年份：1997 · DOI：10.1126/science.278.5346.2117 · 被引用次数：335 · 研究领域：Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior、Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research、Circadian rhythm and melatonin

The threonine-glycine (Thr-Gly) encoding repeat within the clock gene period of Drosophila melanogaster is polymorphic in length. The two major variants (Thr-Gly)17 and (Thr-Gly)20 are distributed as a highly significant latitudinal cline in Europe and North Africa. Thr-Gly length variation from both wild-caught and transgenic individuals is related to the flies' ability to maintain a circadian period at different temperatures. This phenomenon provides a selective explanation for the geographical distribution of Thr-Gly lengths and gives a rare glimpse of the interplay between molecular polymorphism, behavior, population biology, and natural selection.