Nucleotide variation of seven genes in Drosophila kikkawai

Abstract

We examined levels and patterns of nucleotide variation in 21 strains of Drosophila kikkawai from Miyako island, Japan for the partial regions of the following seven nuclear genes: Adh, Ddc, esc, ksr, Pgi, su(f), and Tpi. The nucleotide variation at total sites (πt) ranged from 0.0013 in the ksr, to 0.0173 in the Adh. The nucleotide divergence at total sites (K t) between D. kikkawai and D. lini ranged from 0.0286 in the Tpi to 0.0687 in the su(f). The levels of nucleotide polymorphism and divergence were heterogeneous among the investigated gene regions. The HKA test, which tests imbalance between the intra and interspecific nucleotide variation, showed that the intraspecific nucleotide variation in the Pgi region was much lower than the interspecific variation, while intraspecific variation in the Tpi region was only slightly lower than interspecific variation. The MK test showed an excess of low frequency replacement polymorphic changes in the Adh region, suggesting that most replacement mutations are deleterious. Fay and Wu's test detected an excess of newly arisen variants in the Ddc region. In total, four of the seven gene regions showed significant deviation from the neutrality.