9729937 Wu Males and females from different species have different means of communications in the form of sound, odor or visual display. Such differences usually preclude members of one species from recognizing members of another species as potential mates. As a result, a barrier to gene flow, commonly referred to as reproductive isolation, is established between diverging species. Without this reproductive barrier, nascent species will exchange genes freely and different forms of life will merge into intermediate types. Thus, the biological mechanisms of reproductive isolation are essential for maintaining biodiversity. Understanding the genetics of reproductive isolation also has many practical implications in conservation biology and in pest control. However, the genetic basis of male-female communications has never been rigorously explored. This may be due to a lack of species that i) are amenable to genetic analysis; ii) show strong reproductive isolation; and iii) are at an incipient stage of speciation. We have discovered a new system in the model organism for genetic research, Drosophila melanogaster , that would alleviate all these problems. Females of this species from Zimbabwe (Z-type) and males from the cosmopolitan collections (M-type) fail to communicate properly. All the modern tools of molecular genetics can be applied to the study of the genetic control of male-female communication in this system.
