Submission Type

Poster

Start Date

4-22-2020

Abstract

Teleopsis dalmanni, commonly known as Stalk-Eyed flies, are known for their sexually dimorphic eye-stalks which females use to pick mates. In the wild, some individuals contain meiotic drive which is known to influence eye-stalk length and sex ratios. Our goal was to identify genes in developing eye tissue that are affected by meiotic drive. We are studying males with drive because they tend to have shorter eye stalks, then we will determine what genes are being disrupted or changed due to meiotic drive being present in that individual. We want to study this because males with shorter eye stalks have a lower fitness. Since eye stalks are a sexual ornamentation females prefer to mate with males with larger eye stalks. To identify these candidate genes, we dissected eye antennal discs from 3rd instar larvae, froze them in liquid nitrogen for later use, and retained carcasses. We extracted DNA from the carcasses, and performed PCR for markers diagnosing the sex and meiotic drive status of individuals, then sent them for fragment analysis. We identified 31 male and 66 female Stalk-Eyed larvae and approximately one third of males and females within the population had meiotic drive. Based on this information, we are using the larvae’ eye-antennal imaginal discs from our dissections to measure differential gene expression using RNA from meiotic and non-meiotic drive individuals of each sex. After pooling tissues together by drive, and sex we were able to do RNA extractions using RNeasy RNA extraction kit. We will send these samples for RNA sequence analysis to determine which genes are being affected by meiotic drive.

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Sponsored by Josephine Reinhardt

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Apr 22nd, 12:00 AM

454— Effects of Meiotic Drive on Developing Eyestalks in Stalk-eyed Flies

Teleopsis dalmanni, commonly known as Stalk-Eyed flies, are known for their sexually dimorphic eye-stalks which females use to pick mates. In the wild, some individuals contain meiotic drive which is known to influence eye-stalk length and sex ratios. Our goal was to identify genes in developing eye tissue that are affected by meiotic drive. We are studying males with drive because they tend to have shorter eye stalks, then we will determine what genes are being disrupted or changed due to meiotic drive being present in that individual. We want to study this because males with shorter eye stalks have a lower fitness. Since eye stalks are a sexual ornamentation females prefer to mate with males with larger eye stalks. To identify these candidate genes, we dissected eye antennal discs from 3rd instar larvae, froze them in liquid nitrogen for later use, and retained carcasses. We extracted DNA from the carcasses, and performed PCR for markers diagnosing the sex and meiotic drive status of individuals, then sent them for fragment analysis. We identified 31 male and 66 female Stalk-Eyed larvae and approximately one third of males and females within the population had meiotic drive. Based on this information, we are using the larvae’ eye-antennal imaginal discs from our dissections to measure differential gene expression using RNA from meiotic and non-meiotic drive individuals of each sex. After pooling tissues together by drive, and sex we were able to do RNA extractions using RNeasy RNA extraction kit. We will send these samples for RNA sequence analysis to determine which genes are being affected by meiotic drive.

 

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