Date of Submission

Spring 2014

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Biology

Project Advisor 1

Philip Johns

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Stalk-eyed flies are a diverse family of insects that serve as an excellent model organism for understanding sexual selection. Eyestalk dimorphism between males and females is most prominent in the Teleopsis genus, and this trait serves as an indicator of a male's genetic fitness. In the evolution of Teleopsis the genetic content of the X chromosome has undergone unique changes that correlate with eyestalk dimorphism. This study is aimed at elucidating whether or not the Y chromosome evolves differently in species with monomorphic and dimorphic eyestalks. By identifying 32 Y-linked genes in the monomorphic Eurydiopsis argentifera I show that Y chromosomal content does not correlate with eyestalk monomorphism. I show that genes on the E. argentifera Y chromosome do not tend to accrue more amino acid changes than genes that are not on the Y chromosome, and reveal that via gene duplication and regulation of gene- expression sexual selection operates and E. argentifera's Y chromosomal content is shaped.

Open Access Agreement

On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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