A scan of molecular variation leads to the narrow localization of a selective sweep affecting both Afrotropical and cosmopolitan populations of Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: Drosophila melanogaster originated in tropical Africa but has achieved a cosmopolitan distribution in association with human habitation. Cosmopolitan populations of D. melanogaster are known to have reduced genetic variation, particularly on the X chromosome. However, the relative importance of population bottlenecks and selective sweeps in explaining this reduction is uncertain. We surveyed variation at 31 microsatellites across a 330-kb section of the X chromosome located between the white and kirre genes. Two linked clusters of loci were observed with reduced variation and a skew toward rare alleles in both an Ecuador and a Zimbabwe population sample. Examining Zimbabwe DNA sequence polymorphism within one of these regions allowed us to localize a selective sweep to a 361-bp window with

SUBMITTER: Pool JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1456208 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature