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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Opin Insect Sci. 2019 Sep 24;36:149–156. doi: 10.1016/j.cois.2019.09.005

Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Accelerated turnover of genes encoding glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) coupled with a transition from microbe-feeding to herbivory in Scaptomyza. This figure was reproduced from [2], wherein full results and methods can be found. (a) Genes encoding GSTs were annotated in the genomes of eight drosophilids with diverse ecologies. Among these species, only S. flava is herbivorous. Divergence dates are taken from [30]. (b) Total number of GST genes in each genome. (c) Maximum likelihood estimates of GST gene gain and loss rates in each taxon. Of the eight taxa, only S. flava exhibits a rate of GST turnover (cumulative gains + losses) that is significantly higher than the background rate across the phylogeny as a whole. Yet because the total number of GST genes in S. flava falls within the range observed across the non-herbivorous Drosophila, a focus on overall gene family size would fail to detect this gene family “remodeling” coupled with a transition to herbivory.