Comparative Analysis of Variation of the BOLD Fragment of Mitochondrial cox1 Gene and Y Chromosome kl-2 1-beta dynein heavy chain Gene in Drosophilavirilis Species Group (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Abstract

The species of the virilis group of Drosophila are one of the well-studied models of speciation and microevolution. A comparative analysis of variability of the marker genes for two non-recombining regions of the genome was conducted: the BOLD fragment of the mitochondrial cox1 gene and the fragment of the dynein gene in order to identify events of interspecific hybridization in 11 Drosophila species of the virilis group. We identified single events of the mitochondrial DNA transfer from Drosophila montana to Drosophila lacicola and of the Y chromosome transfer from Drosophila ezoana to Drosophila montana. The probable connection of the modern speciation process in Drosophila montana with genomic instability and interspecific hybridization in nature is discussed.