Differing amounts of genetic polymorphism in testes and male accessory glands of Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans.

We surveyed genetic polymorphism by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of male reproductive tract proteins in 20 isofemale lines each of Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans. After classifying 244 such proteins of Drosophila melanogaster and 271 of Drosophila simulans by their distribution between testes and accessory glands within the reproductive tract, significant correlations were found between genetic polymorphism and tissue distribution. In both species, gland-specific proteins were significantly more polymorphic than testis-specific proteins, as well as those found in both testes and glands. Simultaneously, in Drosophila simulans, proteins found in roughly equivalent relative abundance in both testes and glands were significantly less variable than gland-specific and testis-specific proteins, as well as those with a quantitative difference in relative abundance between testes and glands. These correlations may reflect general differences in variability between extracellular and intracellular proteins and between proteins with broad as opposed to tissue-specific distributions.