Comparative Analysis of the Variation of the BOLD Fragment of the Mitochondrial Gene cox1 and the Y Chromosome Gene kl-2 1-beta dynein heavy chainin Drosophila virilis Species Group (Diptera: Drosophilidae)
The species of Drosophila of the virilis group are one of the well-studied models of speciation and microevolution. We conducted a comparative analysis of the variation of the marker genes of two nonrecombining regions of the genome: the BOLD fragment of the mitochondrial gene cox1 and the fragment of dynein in order to identify events of interspecific hybridization in 11 Drosophila species of the virilis group. We identified single events of mitochondrial DNA transfer from Drosophila montana to Drosophila lacicola and Y chromosome transfer from Drosophila ezoana to Drosophila montana. The probable connection of the modern speciation process in Drosophila montana with genomic instability and interspecific hybridization in nature is discussed.