Evolutionary genetics of the Drosophila melanogaster subgroup I. Phylogenetic relationships based on matings, hybrids and proteins

Abstract

Eight species belonging to the Drosophila melanogaster subgroup were examined genetically and biochemically for the construction of phylogenetic trees. Based on the hypothesis advanced by Watanabe and Kawanishi (1979, 1981), we have estimated the ages for the eight Drosophila species in the descending order to be as follows: D. melanogaster, D. orena, D. simulans, D. yakuba, D. erecta, D. teissieri, D. mauritiana, and D. sechellia The plausible immediate ancestor for D. orena, D. simulans and D. sechellia appears to be D. melanogaster and that for D. yakuba, D. teissieri and D. mauritiana is D. simulans. On the other hand, a two-dimensional electro-phoretic analysis has suggested that the subgroup consists of two complexes; they are D. melanogaster complex (D. melanogaster, D. simulans, D. mauritiana, D. sechellia) and D. yakuba complex (D. yakuba-D. teissieri pair and D. erecta-D. orena pair). Hybridization tests among the eight species have revealed that the most closely related pairs of species are the D. simulans-D. mauritiana within the complexes and the D. mauritiana-D. teissieri between the complexes. © 1987, The Genetics Society of Japan. All rights reserved.