Alcohol-oxidizing enzymes in 13Drosophilaspecies

✍ Scribed by Geoffrey K. Chambers; John F. McDonald; Michael McElfresh; Francisco J. Ayala

• Book ID: 104784225
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1978
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 591 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-2928
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00484733

✦ Synopsis

Starch and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis were used to ascertain the substrate speeificities of alcohol-oxidizing enzymes in 13 Drosophila species. The substrates used were a variety of long-and short-chain aliphatic alcohols, one aromatic alcohol, and benzaldehyde. Only one enzyme (product of a single-gene locus) showed significant NAD +-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase activity with short-chain aliphatic alcohols. The 13 species, belonging to four different Drosophila groups, all showed a similar complement of alcohol-oxidizing enzymes, although differences in electrophoretic mobility and in levels of activity existed from species to species. These findings are relevant to the adaptation of Drosophila to alcohol environments.