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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1984 Jan;81(1):282–285. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.1.282

Streptococcal L-forms isolated from Drosophila paulistorum semispecies cause sterility in male progeny.

N L Somerson, L Ehrman, J P Kocka, F J Gottlieb
PMCID: PMC344656  PMID: 6582483

Abstract

The Drosophila paulistorum complex contains six semispecies that do not normally interbreed. In the laboratory, crosses between semispecies produce fertile daughters and sterile sons. Microbial endosymbionts have been observed in all D. paulistorum flies that display this male sterility. Streptococcal L-forms have been isolated from the Andean-Brazilian (Mesitas) and Transitional (Santa Marta) semispecies and cultured in artificial medium. Transfer of these L-forms from their native hosts into reciprocal semispecies resulted in sterile male progeny. When L-forms were inoculated into the semispecies from which they had been isolated, most of the male progeny were fertile. Control streptococcal L-forms did not show this sterility pattern.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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