DrosoCline

A Resource on Indian-Drosophila

Indian-Drosophila is a resource on Indian Drosophila ecology and evolution. It covers details on taxonomic status, clinal variations, and distribution of Indian drosophilids. The material presented here on this portal is either published in various scientific journals or contributed by Drosophila research community. 

Latitudinal & Altitudinal Cline

Click over DrosoCline to access phenotypes

STEM Lab is running multi-level studies on Indian drosophilids and as newer findings come out these will be posted here on this web-resource.

Current Projects:

1. Clines (Latitudinal/Altitudinal)

2. mtDNA analysis (Population structuring)

3. Genome sequencing (Genes responding to climate warming)

4. Species gallery (Part of Science Outreach Initiative) 

Taxonomy of Indian Drosophilids

Drosophilids as a broader taxonomic group are very diverse in subtropical India, with over 320 species identified till date (Fartyal & Singh, 2001; Gupta, 2005; Kumar & Ajai, 2009; Kandpal & Singh, 2010; Pradhan et al 2015). There are 25 genera which comprise the Indian drosophilids fauna and among them, genus Drosophila is the most important and of common occurrence. Genus Drosophila Fallen is further divided into subgenera. The number of subgenera found in India is described differently by different authors (see Singh, 2015). Gupta (2005) proposed four subgenera of the genus Drosophila found in India: Dorsilopha, Dudaica, Drosophila and Sophophora. In India genus Drosophila is comprises by more than 150 species (R. S. Fartyal; unpublished data). The genus Drosophila has rich species diversity in India where a high level of diversity of ecological conditions might have provided impetus to the evolution of Drosophila species. A large number of species of this genus is endemic to this subcontinent (Singh, 2015). 

References

• Fartyal RS, Singh BK. 2001. List of Drosophilid species so far described and recorded from India. Drosophila Information Service 84:30-38.

• Gupta JP. 2005. A monograph of Indian Drosophilidae. Journal of Scientific Research B.H.U. 51:1-252.

• Kumar R, Ajai K. 2009. Studies on Drosophilidae (Diptera) of Gujrat state of India. Drosophila Information Service 92:102.

• Kandpal M, Singh BK. 2010. Revised list of Drosophilidae species so far described and recorded from India. Drosophila Information Service 93:11-20.

• Singh BN. 2015. Species and genetic diversity in the genus Drosophila inhabiting the Indian subcontinent. Journal of Genetics 94:351-361.

• Pradhan S, Sati PC, Fartyal RS, Chatterjee RN, Sarswat M, Kandpal MC, Singh BK. 2015. Drosophila curviceps species-group (Diptera: Drosophilidae) from India, with description of a new species and redescription of a known species. Proceeding of Zoological Society 68:178-183.

Distribution of Drosophila species populations along Indian latitudes.

Each colour represents a different species.  

Further readings...

Mayekar HV, Ramkumar DK, Garg D, Nair A, Khandelwal A, Joshi A, and Rajpurohit S. 2022. Clinal variation as a tool to understand climate change. Frontiers in Physiology 13:880728.doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.880728.

Rajpurohit S., Zhao X, and Schmidt P.S. 2017. A resource on latitudinal and altitudinal clines of ecologically relevant phenotypes of the Indian Drosophila. Scientific Data, 4:170066 DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2017.66.

Rajpurohit S., Nedved O. 2013. Clinal variation in fitness related traits in tropical drosophilids of the Indian subcontinent. Journal of Thermal Biology, 38:345-354.

Rajpurohit S., Nedved O., Gibbs A.G. 2013. Meta-analysis of geographical clines in desiccation tolerance of Indian drosophilids. Comparative Biochemistry & Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 164:391-398. 

Drosophila Species Image Gallery

Hi

Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any more questions about the material presented here. Potential collaborators could directly write to me at my email ID. 

Thanks,

Subhash Rajpurohit, Ph.D.