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Monitoring of the genetic structure of natural populations: change of the effective population size and inversion polymorphism in Drosophila subobscura

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Abstract

We analyzed changes in the genetic structure and effective population size of two ecologically distinct populations of Drosophila subobscura over several years. Population sizes of D. subobscura in beech and oak wood habitats for a period of 6 years were estimated by the capture-mark-release-recapture method. Inversion polymorphism parameters were also assessed in the same populations for a period of 3 years.

Significant differences in the numbers of individuals were observed between sexes. This affected the effective population sizes between particular years. The ratio of the effective size over the cenzus dropped significantly in beech wood in 2 years.

Although overall heterozygosity remained unchanged during the years in both habitats, frequencies of gene arrangements on five chromosomes show variability. After the bottleneck, some complex chromosomal arrangements appeared for the first time in both populations. Standard gene arrangements of chromosome A increased in frequency over the years in each habitat, while the complex arrangements remain rather stable and specific for each population.

The results obtained indicate that the population structure may significantly change if the effective size of D. subobscura population is reduced, which is mostly related to microclimatic changes in habitats. Based on the results to date, monitoring of microevolutionary changes by using D. subobscura and its relatives seems a promising way to study the effects of global climate changes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia, Grant No. 143014. We are grateful to The Education Center of Faculty of Forestry at mountain Goc for providing help and facilities for field research. The authors thank the unanimous referees for helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 3, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Marina Stamenkovic-Radak, Gordana Rasic, Predrag Kalajdzic & Marko Andjelkovic

  2. Institute of Biological Research, University of Belgrade, Despot Stefan Blvd. 142, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Tatjana Savic, Zorana Kurbalija & Bojan Kenig

Authors
  1. Marina Stamenkovic-Radak
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  2. Gordana Rasic
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  3. Tatjana Savic
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  4. Predrag Kalajdzic
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  5. Zorana Kurbalija
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  6. Bojan Kenig
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  7. Marko Andjelkovic
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Correspondence to Marina Stamenkovic-Radak.

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Stamenkovic-Radak, M., Rasic, G., Savic, T. et al. Monitoring of the genetic structure of natural populations: change of the effective population size and inversion polymorphism in Drosophila subobscura . Genetica 133, 57–63 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-007-9183-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-007-9183-0

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