title: Evolution of the tan locus contributed to pigment loss in Drosophila santomea: a response to Matute et al.
abstract: We have shown previously that the loss of abdominal pigmentation in D. santomea relative to its sister species D. yakuba resulted, in part, from cis-regulatory mutations at the tan locus. Matute et al. claim, based solely upon extrapolation from genetic crosses of D. santomea and D. melanogaster, a much more divergent species, that at least four X chromosome regions but not tan are responsible for pigmentation differences. Here, we provide additional evidence from introgressions of D. yakuba genes into D. santomea that support a causative role for tan in the loss of pigmentation and present analyses that contradict Matute et al.'s claims. We discuss how the choice of parental species and other factors affect the ability to identify loci responsible for species divergence, and we affirm that all of our previously reported results and conclusions stand.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin, 1525 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rebeiz
authors.forename: Margarita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramos-Womack
authors.forename: Sangyun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Andolfatto
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: True
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.forename: Sean B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Carroll
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002678:Chimera; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000378:metabolism*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D010858:Pigmentation / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity; D014960:X Chromosome
chemical_list: D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C431070:t protein, Drosophila