Temperature and the progeny sex-ratio in Sciara ocellaris (Diptera, Sciaridae)
AUTOR(ES)
Nigro, Rogério G., Campos, Maria Cristina C., Perondini, André Luiz P.
FONTE
Genetics and Molecular Biology
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO
2007
RESUMO
We found that the sex-ratio of an amphigenic strain of Sciara ocellaris varied widely from progenies with few males to progenies containing a larger proportion of males, with single-sex progenies being rare. The sex-ratio distributions were dependent on the temperature at which the stocks of flies were raised, with the sex-ratio distributions being symmetrical (i.e. about 50% males) at 18 °C and 20 °C while at the higher temperatures of 24 °C and 28 °C the distributions were skewed toward a high proportion of females with the mean proportion of males decreasing to about 30-37% per progeny. Temperature-shift experiments showed that high temperatures were effective only during the last stages of female pupal development plus a period after adult emergence, stages corresponding to oocyte maturation. When imagine females were exposed to temperatures as low as 12 °C the sex-ratio distributions of their progeny were skewed toward a high proportion of males per progeny. No differential fecundity was involved in these progeny sex-ratio modifications. Egg-to-adult survival was lower at 18 °C and 28 °C but no correlations with skewing in the sex ratio distributions were observed, indicating that modifications in progeny sex-ratio did not involve the differential survival of a particular sex.
