Sexual Isolation in Drosophila

A thriving area of research at present concerns the genetic basis of speciation.  Popular topics include the hunt for genes that consistently are involved in speciation in a variety of taxa, the genetics of postzygotic isolation, and whether many genes with small effects or few genes with large effects are more important in the process of divergence.  Even as recent as the 90s, little had been done on the genetics of speciation.  In 1994, Jerry Coyne and colleagues designed a simple but brilliant experiment to demonstrate that species-specific pheromones (cuticular hydrocarbons) are involved in sexual isolation between two sister taxa, Drosophila sechellia and D. simulans.  After identifying a role for pheromones in species recognition, the authors used a clever mapping technique to identify the genetic basis of the key pheromonal differences.  This study provided some of the first evidence that key trait differences between species may be based on a few genes with large effect sizes.

(Video credit: ClyneFlicks on Youtube)

• The original paper

One of the most important speciation papers. Ever.