Evidence for the adaptive significance of enzyme activity levels: Interspecific variation in α-GPDH and ADH inDrosophila
✍ Scribed by John F. McDonald; John C. Avise
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1976
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 466 KB
- Volume
- 14
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0006-2928
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✦ Synopsis
The activity levels of alcohol dehydrogenase and ~-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase were compared among nine species of Drosophila representing three phylogenetic groups. For any given life stage, interspecifie variability in activity level was much greater for ADH than for ~-GPDH. Patterns of ontogenetic expression of enzyme activity were also much more variable among species for ADH than for ~-GPDH. These results are consistent with the interpretation that ~-GPDH is involved with a relatively uniform adaptive function among species, whereas ADH levels may reflect variable adaptive capabilities. There is a significant correlation between ADH activities and survivorship on alcohol treated media for these nine species.