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Esterase isoenzyme analysis of four ontogenetic stages of Drosophila melanogaster populations selected for fast and slow developmental time and treated with vertebrate and plant steroids

Ivana Beatrice Mânica Da Cruz; Alice Kalisz de Oliveira

Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Caixa Postal 15053, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. Send correspondence to A.K.O.

ABSTRACT

Drosophila melanogaster populations selected for 27 years for fast and slow developmental rate were treated with steroid hormones (ecdysone, vitamin D3 and Solanum malacoxylon (Solanacea, Tubiflorae) vitamin D3-glycoside) to determine their effect on the esterase patterns of four ontogenetic stages (end of third larval instar, early pupae, pharate pupae and imagoes). Vitamin D3 promoted the greatest difference in esterase activity pattern. The effect of S. malacoxylon glycoside was most similar to that of ecdysone in the fast population and most similar to that of vitamin D3 in the slow population. When the similarity index was used to compare populations it was found that the S. malacoxylon treatment was the most effective in promoting differences in the esterase pattern between fast and control populations and the vitamin D3 treatment was the most effective in enhancing the difference between the fast and slow populations. In the comparison between slow and control populations, except for vitamin D3, all treatments including the untreated sample showed similar degrees of difference. Plant steroids differ from vertebrate hormone by an additional glycoside. Their effects on D. melanogaster metabolism differed and were dependent on endogenous hormonal content of the selected populations, which were previously found to be different (Jung, 1992).

Keywords: esterase isoenzyme; ontogenetic stages; Drosophila melanogaster; plant steroids.

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