ArticlePLoS genetics2009
Quantifying adaptive evolution in the Drosophila immune system.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 142 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
142 citing papers in PubMed, 273 citations in OpenAlex.
- Signatures of selection in pleiotropic genes involved in insect neuronal and immune systems.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- A key regulator of missing-self innate immunity is polymorphic and under diversifying selection.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Signatures of selection in pleiotropic genes involved in insect neuronal and immune systems.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Predictors of Protein Evolution in the drosophilid Immune System.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Recurrent innovation of protein-protein interactions in the Drosophila piRNA pathway.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- Article
- Increased heterozygosity and balancing selection in isofemale generations of Anopheles stephensi under laboratory conditions.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Varying phylogenetic signal in susceptibility to four bacterial pathogens across species of Drosophilidae.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Positive Selection on Mammalian Immune Genes-Effects of Gene Function and Selective Constraint.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Repeated global adaptation across plant species.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Molecular Insights into Female Hybrid Sterility in Interspecific Crosses betweenInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- The Effect of Developmental Pleiotropy on the Evolution of Insect Immune Genes.Genome biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Off-target piRNA gene silencing in Drosophila melanogaster rescued by a transposable element insertion.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
- Complex patterns shape immune genes diversity during invasion of common raccoon in Europe - Selection in action despite genetic drift.Evolutionary applications · 2023Article
- African Suid Genomes Provide Insights into the Local Adaptation to Diverse African Environments.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Trans-regulatory changes underpin the evolution of the Drosophila immune response.PLoS genetics · 2022Article
- Strong evidence for the adaptive walk model of gene evolution in Drosophila and Arabidopsis.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- A novel transposable element-mediated mechanism causes antiviral resistance inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
82 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
It is estimated that a large proportion of amino acid substitutions in Drosophila have been fixed by natural selection, and as organisms are faced with an ever-changing array of pathogens and parasites to which they must adapt, we have investigated the role of parasite-mediated selection as a likely cause. To quantify the effect, and to identify which genes and pathways are most likely to be involved in the host-parasite arms race, we have re-sequenced population samples of 136 immunity and 287 position-matched non-immunity genes in two species of Drosophila. Using these data, and a new extension of the McDonald-Kreitman approach, we estimate that natural selection fixes advantageous amino acid changes in immunity genes at nearly double the rate of other genes. We find the rate of adaptive evolution in immunity genes is also more variable than other genes, with a small subset of immune genes evolving under intense selection. These genes, which are likely to represent hotspots of host-parasite coevolution, tend to share similar functions or belong to the same pathways, such as the antiviral RNAi pathway and the IMD signalling pathway. These patterns appear to be general features of immune system evolution in both species, as rates of adaptive evolution are correlated between the D. melanogaster and D. simulans lineages. In summary, our data provide quantitative estimates of the elevated rate of adaptive evolution in immune system genes relative to the rest of the genome, and they suggest that adaptation to parasites is an important force driving molecular evolution.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.