A Musca domestica satellite sequence detects individual polymorphic regions in insect genome.

A recombinant plasmid, pHMd.24, was constructed which contains an array of a 24 bp sequence from the genome of the Musca domestica. This sequence hybridizes to sites occurring at various genomic locations in different housefly strains. The pHMd.24 insert has a structural organisation similar to satellite DNA sequences and hybridizes to homologous repeated sequences representing a small fraction of the M. domestica genome. Interestingly, this clone reveals polymorphic fragments from DNA isolated from single houseflies, thus generating an insect DNA fingerprint. In addition, the segregation of the fragments detected by hybridisation in a M. domestica pedigree indicates a transmission that follows mendelian inheritance.