Open AccessOn the Origin of the O 5 Chromosomal Inversion in American Populations of Drosophila Subobscura
Author(s) -
Mestres F.,
Serra L.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
hereditas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1601-5223
pISSN - 0018-0661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1601-5223.1995.00039.x
Subject(s) - biology , drosophila subobscura , lethal allele , colonization , chromosomal inversion , genetics , chromosome , gene , population , evolutionary biology , ecology , karyotype , demography , sociology
D. subobscura , a typically Palearctic species, has recently colonized the American continent. The population from which the colonization started is still unknown. A complete association between a lethal gene and the O 5 chromosomal inversion has been detected in the colonizing populations; this association could be used to ascertain the origin of the colonization. In the present study, three hypotheses on the origin of this association are analyzed and their probabilities are calculated. According to the first hypothesis an O 5 chromosome carrying a lethal gene would have been included in the sample from which the colonization started, thus originating the association found in the American populations. The second hypothesis assumes that, at the beginning of the colonization, the association between the O 5 inversion and a lethal gene would have been formed from an O st chromosome carrying a lethal gene, on which a new O 5 (or similar) inversion arose. In the last hypothesis, the association between the O 5 inversion and the lethal gene would have originated at the beginning of the colonization from a lethal‐free O 5 chromosome, in which a lethal gene arose due to mutation.