Recurrent Collection of Drosophila melanogaster from Wild African Environments and Genomic Insights into Species History.

ABSTRACT: A long-standing enigma concerns the geographic and ecological origins of the intensively studied vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster. This globally distributed human commensal is thought to originate from sub-Saharan Africa, yet until recently, it had never been reported from undisturbed wilderness environments that could reflect its precommensal niche. Here, we document the collection of 288 D. melanogaster individuals from multiple African wilderness areas in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. The presence of D. melanogaster in these remote woodland environments is consistent with an ancestral range in southern-central Africa, as opposed to equatorial regions. After sequencing the genomes of 17 wilderness-collected flies collected from Kafue National Park in Zambia, we found reduced genetic

SUBMITTER: Sprengelmeyer QD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7038662 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature