Costa R, Peixoto A A, Barbujani G, Kyriacou C P
Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Padova, Italy.
Proc Biol Sci. 1992 Oct 22;250(1327):43-9. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1992.0128.
The clock gene period determines biological rhythmicity in Drosophila melanogaster and encodes a protein characterized by an alternating series of threonine-glycine pairs. The minisatellite region encoding the threonine-glycine repeat is polymorphic in length in natural Drosophila melanogaster populations. In this paper we report the geographical analysis of this polymorphism within Europe and North Africa. A robust clinal pattern is observed along a north-south axis. We suggest the possibility that the length polymorphism could be maintained by thermal selection because the threonine-glycine region has been shown to provide thermostability to the circadian phenotype.
生物钟基因period决定了黑腹果蝇的生物节律，其编码的蛋白质具有由苏氨酸-甘氨酸对交替组成的序列特征。在自然的黑腹果蝇种群中，编码苏氨酸-甘氨酸重复序列的小卫星区域长度具有多态性。在本文中，我们报告了对欧洲和北非地区这种多态性的地理分析。沿着南北轴观察到了一种明显的渐变模式。我们认为长度多态性有可能通过热选择得以维持，因为苏氨酸-甘氨酸区域已被证明能为昼夜节律表型提供热稳定性。
