Eur. J. Entomol. 122: 1-10, 2025 | DOI: 10.14411/eje.2025.001

Seasonal variation in endoreduplication and polyteny in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera: Drosophilidae): How does it contribute to adaptation?Original article

Volodymyr STRASHNYUK ORCID...1, 2, Evgenij VAKULENKO ORCID...1, Yelyzaveta KOPTEVTSOVA ORCID...1
1 Department of Genetics and Cytology, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Svobody sq., 4, Kharkiv 61022, Ukraine; e-mails: volodymyr.strashnyuk@gmail.com, vakulenkoevgenij353@gmail.com, ekoptevtsova@gmail.com
2 Laboratory "Regulation of Gene Expression", Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Bonchev str., B. 21, Sofia, 1113, Bulgaria

In temperate regions, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen, 1830) is subject to seasonal changes in natural conditions. Insects exhibit a wide range of adaptive responses to changes in the seasons. In this study, we focused on polyteny, which plays an important role in fruit fly development. Polytene chromosomes are the result of endocycles, a variant of the cell cycle based on endoreduplication. This phenomenon is the basis of postmitotic growth, which is caused by cell expansion. The purpose of the study was to investigate the seasonal dynamics of the levels of endoreduplication and polyteny in fruit flies obtained from the natural population. Flies caught in the spring and autumn of 2019 and 2020 were used as biological material. Chromosomal differences in polyteny were studied by cytomorphometry. We found that patterns of polyteny in Drosophila salivary glands undergo seasonal changes. To a certain extent, these variations correlate with changes in the direction of natural selection, which undergoes seasonal fluctuations. Indices of endoreduplication and cell ploidy acquire the greatest values after overwintering, during which there is an extreme decline in population size and flies undergo selection for viability and stress resistance. During the growing season, endoreduplication and ploidy indicators are reduced. We believe that this facilitates population growth by resulting in smaller flies with accelerated development and faster change of generations. The seasonal component in the total variation of chromosome polyteny in the salivary glands of Drosophila larvae was 21.9%. No significant sex differences were found for this trait.

Keywords: Drosophila, natural population, developmental polyploidy, polytene chromosomes, endocycles, fluctuating selection

Received: October 25, 2024; Revised: January 3, 2025; Accepted: January 3, 2025; Published online: January 28, 2025  Show citation

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STRASHNYUK, V., VAKULENKO, E., & KOPTEVTSOVA, Y. (2025). Seasonal variation in endoreduplication and polyteny in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera: Drosophilidae): How does it contribute to adaptation? EJE, 122, Article 1-10. https://doi.org/10.14411/eje.2025.001
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