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Divergent evolution of molecular markers during laboratory adaptation in Drosophila subobscura

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Abstract

The impact of genetic drift in population divergence can be elucidated using replicated laboratory experiments. In the present study we used microsatellite loci to study the genetic variability and differentiation of laboratory populations of Drosophila subobscura derived from a common ancestral natural population after 49 generations in the laboratory. We found substantial genetic variability in all our populations. The high levels of genetic variability, similar across replicated populations, suggest that careful maintenance procedures can efficiently reduce the loss of genetic variability in captive populations undergoing adaptation, even without applying active management procedures with conservation purposes, in organisms that generate a high number of offspring such as Drosophila. Nevertheless, there was a significant genetic differentiation between replicated populations. This shows the importance of genetic drift, acting through changes in allele frequencies among populations, even when major changes in the degree of genetic diversity in each population are not involved.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ana Duarte and Josiane Santos for technical help. This study was partially financed by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) project nº POCTI/BSE/33673/2000 (with co-participation of FEDER) and Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (CGL2006-13423-C02/BOS). P. Simões had a PhD grant ref SFRH/BD/10604/2002 from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.

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  1. Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Centro de Biologia Ambiental, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal

    Pedro Simões, Maria Manuela Coelho & Margarida Matos

  2. Departament de Genètica, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Marta Pascual

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  1. Pedro Simões
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  2. Marta Pascual
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  3. Maria Manuela Coelho
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  4. Margarida Matos
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Correspondence to Pedro Simões.

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Simões, P., Pascual, M., Coelho, M.M. et al. Divergent evolution of molecular markers during laboratory adaptation in Drosophila subobscura . Genetica 138, 999–1009 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-010-9486-4

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