A comparison of gene-enzyme variation between Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans

✍ Scribed by C. D. Triantaphyllidis; J. N. Panourgias; Z. G. Scouras; G. C. Ioannidis

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 345 KB
• Volume: 51
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-6707
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00121616

✦ Synopsis

Genetic variation at eleven gene loci coding for enzymes has been studied in sympatric Greek island populations of Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans. Only two enzyme loci indicate an absolute interspecific difference. In D. melanogaster, the average number of alleles per locus was 2.37, the mean proportion of polymorphic loci 0.818, and the mean heterozygosity 0.156. The corresponding values in D. simulans were 2.09, 0.455, and 0.173 respectively. The average heterozygosity was found to be higher in the Greek island population of D. simulans than in the Hawaiian population studied by others; allelic differences were observed as well. The coefficient of genetic identity (Nei's I) between the two sibling species was found to be 0.566. A comparison of genetic similarity among Greek, American (U.S.A.) and Japanese D. melanogaster populations, estimated on the basis of allelie frequencies for nine enzymic loci, showed little difference between the populations, giving an average genetic similarity of 0.965.