EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY

Eur. J. Entomol. 119: 99-110, 2022 | DOI: 10.14411/eje.2022.011

Mitochondrial DNA variation of Drosophila obscura (Diptera: Drosophilidae) across EuropeOriginal article

Pavle ERIĆ ORCID...^{1, 5}, Marina STAMENKOVIĆ-RADAK ORCID...^{2, 5}, Milan DRAGIĆEVIĆ ORCID...¹, Maaria KANKARE ORCID...^{3, 5}, Megan A. WALLACE ORCID...^{4, 5}, Marija SAVIĆ VESELINOVIĆ ORCID...^{2, 5}, Mihailo JELIĆ ORCID...^{2, 5}

¹ Institute for Biological Research "Siniša Stanković", National Institute of Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Bulevar despota Stefana 142, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia; e-mails: pavle.eric@ibiss.bg.ac.rs, mdragicevic@ibiss.bg.ac.rs

² University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, Studentski trg 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia; e-mails: marina@bio.bg.ac.rs, marijas@bio.bg.ac.rs, mihailoj@bio.bg.ac.rs

³ Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Survontie 9, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland; e-mail: maaria.kankare@jyu.fi

⁴ Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Charlotte Auerbach Road, Kings Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, UK; current e-mail: M.A.Wallace@exeter.ac.uk

⁵ The European Drosophila Population Genomics Consortium (DrosEU)

Drosophila obscura is a common fruit fly that inhabits the temperate forests of Europe. While it is abundant in the north compared to other Drosophila, its density decreases southwards, where it is gradually replaced by other Drosophila species. This study describes variation in the mitochondrial Cyt b gene of D. obscura from several European populations. We observed a large number of haplotypes, together with the structuring of genetic variation. Genetic variation is higher in the west where O1 and related divergent haplotypes dominate. In the east, the O2 haplotype is most frequent, together with haplotypes that recently arose from it. In the central part of the species range, both O1 and O2 are equally present, along with many others. These data reveal signs of population expansions that probably happened earlier in the west, and more recently in the east. Though our conclusions are based on only one genetic marker, limiting the power of the analysis, the results imply either postglacial expansion from two unique sources or, more likely, eastwards stepping-stone expansion. This study adds important information on genetic variation and phylogeography to the obscure biology of D. obscura, a species that has the potential to become an interesting model in evolutionary biology and conservation genetics.

Keywords: Cyt b, genetic variation, population expansion, phylogeography

Received: April 12, 2021; Revised: December 20, 2021; Accepted: December 20, 2021; Published online: February 9, 2022  Show citation