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Elevated ozone disrupts mating boundaries in drosophilid flies
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Elevated ozone disrupts mating boundaries in drosophilid flies
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Journal Article
Elevated ozone disrupts mating boundaries in drosophilid flies
2024
Overview
Animals employ different strategies to establish mating boundaries between closely related species, with sex pheromones often playing a crucial role in identifying conspecific mates. Many of these pheromones have carbon-carbon double bonds, making them vulnerable to oxidation by certain atmospheric oxidant pollutants, including ozone. Here, we investigate whether increased ozone compromises species boundaries in drosophilid flies. We show that short-term exposure to increased levels of ozone degrades pheromones of
Drosophila melanogaster
,
D. simulans
,
D. mauritiana
, as well as
D. sechellia
, and induces hybridization between some of these species. As many of the resulting hybrids are sterile, this could result in local population declines. However, hybridization between
D. simulans
and
D. mauritiana
as well as
D. simulans
and
D. sechellia
results in fertile hybrids, of which some female hybrids are even more attractive to the males of the parental species. Our experimental findings indicate that ozone pollution could potentially induce breakdown of species boundaries in insects.
Some atmospheric pollutants may disrupt chemical communication in insects. Here, the authors show that exposure to elevated ozone disrupts pheromone-mediated mate recognition and increases hybridization in laboratory colonies of four
Drosophila
species.
