Molecular Characterization of an Altered Mating Behavior in Drosophila Melanogaster Vestigial Mutants

The mating behavior of Drosophila melanogaster consists of a male courtship ritual used to entice females to mate and females accepting or rejecting copulation. Receptivity to vestigial (vg) males is a genetic trait that can be artificially selected for in vg females. Using choice tests and brother-sister pair matings, recombinant inbred lines of D. melanogaster were created that varied in the percentage of females that would mate with vg males over wild type males. These lines were used in molecular tests to determine which genes are responsible for the differences in female behaviors. The first approach used was amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis. While there were differences in AFLPs among different lines, there were no correlations between banding patterns and female behavior. All attempts to sequence AFLP bands were unsuccessful. The next approach used was to sequence a candidate gene and to compare the sequences of this gene from each RI line. Sequencing of the Delta exons was successful in all lines, but no sequence differences were found that correlated with the differences in female behavior. Based on this information, this thesis serves to evaluate the effectiveness of AFLP analysis in detecting genetic differences associated with mating behaviors.