The reletion between nutrition and exhibition of the gene antennales (Drosophila melanogaster)

Abstract

In normal cultures of D. melanogaster containing the gene Antennaless, phenotypic indices of pure lines are at first high, then decline to a minimum about the 4th day, and subsequently rise to near the initial level. This is not due to selective mortality of genotypes distinguished by modifiers of Antennaless, but results from external changes in the normal culture media. Successive changes of exhibition frequency can be correlated with gross changes due to the activities of the larvae and to biochemical changes in the yeast diet arising from differential fertility or mortality of yeast strains and from direct action of changing conditions upon the metabolism of the microflora. Yeasts produce one group of substances which encourage and one group which inhibit exhibition of the gene Antennaless. A provisional hypothesis is that transition from the descending to the ascending phase of exhibition coincides with change from aerobic to anaerobic respiration of the yeasts. This, in turn, affects the relative concs. of specific nutritional products which influence exhibition.