Detecting level of genetic differentiation in two closely related species of Drosophila: D. bipectinata and D. malerkotliana

Abstract

A considerable amount of allozyme variation exists among different populations of a Drosophila species. Such allozyme variation can also be observed between two closely related species of Drosophila which show reproductive isolation but experience mating under laboratory conditions and produce hybrids. D. bipectinata and D. malerkotliana are two closely related sympatric species and belong to bipectinata species complex. Allozyme polymorphism studies conducted with them and their hybrids reveal that these two species have enough genetic differentiation due to allozyme variation at three enzyme coding loci; however, their hybrids exhibit common allozyme variants of both the species. The hybrids exhibit very little genetic differentiation from either of their parents.