COLONIZATION OF AMERICA BY DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA: LETHAL GENES AND THE PROBLEM OF THE O5 INVERSION.

In this work, the process of colonization of North and South America by the species Drosophila subobscura has been studied by analyzing the variability of lethal genes. The genetic structures of a Palearctic natural central population (Bordils, Spain) and a colonizer population from America (Gilroy, California) have been compared. The frequencies of lethal chromosomes and their allelism are 29.007% and 0.0069 in the first population and 14.414% and 0.0526 in the American population. A founder effect is detected after the computation of some population parameters (Ne , h, he and the lethal load). Furthermore, the allelism of lethal chromosomes has revealed a strong association between a lethal gene and the O5 inversion both in Gilroy and in the population of Puerto Montt (Chile). The interpopulation allelism shows that the O5 arrangement from the USA and Chile is the same, confirming that the colonizing processes of North and South America are correlated. The O5 arrangement can also be useful as a genetic marker to trace the origin of the colonization. The frequency of the O5 arrangement in the original population of the colonization could be used to estimate the number of colonizers. This population is still unknown, but taking the extreme values of the frequency of the O5 inversion in natural Palearctic populations (1-15%), the number of colonizers could vary between 9 and 149 individuals. © 1990 The Society for the Study of Evolution.