Intra and interspecific variation in the nuclear sequences of the clock gene period in species of the Drosophila buzzatii cluster

FRANCO, F, E SILVA-BERNARDI, F SENE, E HASSON Y M MANFRIN.

JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGICAL SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH

Wiley

Año: 2010 vol. 48 p. 322 - 331

0947-5745

We have measured nucleotide variation in the CLOCK/CYCLE heterodimer inhibition domain (CCID) of the clock X-linked gene period in seven species belonging to the Drosophila buzzatii cluster, namely D. buzzatii, Drosophila koepferae, Drosophila antonietae, Drosophila serido, Drosophila gouveai, Drosophila seriema and Drosophila borborema. We detected that the purifying selection is the main force driving the sequence evolution in period, in agreement with the important role of CCID in clock machinery. Our survey revealed that period provides valuable phylogenetic information that allowed to resolve phylogenetic relationships among D. gouveai, D. borborema and D. seriema, which composed a polytomic clade in preliminary studies. The analysis of patterns of intraspecific variation revealed two different lineages of period in D. koepferae, probably reflecting introgressive hybridization from D. buzzatii, in concordance with previous molecular data.