Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Beta-alanine and adaptation in Drosophila

1974; Elsevier BV; Volume: 20; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0022-1910(74)90175-9

1879-1611

Jeanne M. E. Jacobs,

Biochemical effects in animals

Populations of Drosophila melanogaster show melanistic polymorphism. Adult melanization is inversely related to the rate of incorporation of beta-alanine into tanning cuticles. Light tan pigmentation is directly related to this incorporation. Beta-alanine induced tanning serves to protect pupae from ultraviolet light damage. Flies which do not fail to incorporate injected beta-alanine into developing cuticles, but which exhibit inhibited beta-alanine synthesis (flies homozygous for the gene ‘b’) are not only protected, as pupae, from ultraviolet damage by beta-alanine injection but also show enhanced mating success when injected as newly emerged adults. The metabolic block in this mutant appears in the pathway from orotic acid through uracil to beta-alanine.