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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Quantifying Abdominal Pigmentation in Drosophila melanogaster
Published on: June 1, 2017
The genetic basis of adaptive pigmentation variation in Drosophila melanogaster
John E Pool1, Charles F Aquadro
1Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. jpool@bi.ku.dk
Abstract:
In a broad survey of Drosophila melanogaster population samples, levels of abdominal pigmentation were found to be highly variable and geographically differentiated. A strong positive correlation was found between dark pigmentation and high altitude, suggesting adaptation to specific environments. DNA sequence polymorphism at the candidate gene ebony revealed a clear association with the pigmentation of homozygous third chromosome lines. The darkest lines sequenced had nearly identical haplotypes spanning 14.5 kb upstream of the protein-coding exons of ebony. Thus, natural selection may have elevated the frequency of an allele that confers dark abdominal pigmentation by influencing the regulation of ebony.
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