Similar rates of protein adaptation in Drosophila miranda and D. melanogaster, two species with different current effective population sizes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Adaptive protein evolution is common in several Drosophila species investigated. Some studies point to very weak selection operating on amino-acid mutations, with average selection intensities on the order of Nes approximately in D. melanogaster and D. simulans. Species with lower effective population sizes should undergo less adaptation since they generate fewer mutations and selection is ineffective on a greater proportion of beneficial mutations.

Results

Here I study patterns of polymorphism and divergence at 91 X-linked loci in D. miranda, a species with a roughly 5-fold smaller effective population size than D. melanogaster. Surprisingly, I find a similar fraction of amino-acid mutations being driven to fixation by positive selection in D. miranda and D. mela

SUBMITTER: Bachtrog D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2633301 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature