MOLECULAR INSIGHTS INTO THE EVOLUTION OF AN ENZYME - ESTERASE6 IN DROSOPHILA

It is still a suspicion among some evolutionary biologists that the in cursion of molecular biology into their field will do little more than determine the DNA sequence differences underlying evolutionary change s already evident at the organismal level. Work on an esterase enzyme involved in the reproductive biology of Drosophila belies this view. A lthough it is already one of the most intensively studied gene-enzyme systems at an organismal level, recent molecular investigations reveal several unexpected, and, in some cases, still inexplicable phenomena in its evolutionary history.