Biochemical phylogeny of the Drosophila montium species subgroup

Abstract

Phylogenic relationships among 21 members (15 species) of the Drosophila montium species subgroup were investigated by O'Farrell's two-dimensional electrophoresis (2DE) and by starch gel electrophoresis (SDE). Phylogenic positions of two unclassified species [D. punjabiensis-like and D. sp. (Iriomote)] as well as those of two new species (D. bocki and D. leontia) within the D. kikkawai complex could be assigned, and it was evidenced that both electrophoretic techniques are adjunctively useful tools in taxonomy. Although the magnitude of genetic differentiation may be different between protein loci surveyed by 2DE and allozyme loci obtained by SDE, the relationship of genetic distances was highly correlated between two data sets of 2DE and SDE, as shown previously by Aquadro and Avise (1981). The biochemical dendrograms in the subgroup were constructed by the data sets (2DE and SDE) of genetic distances between species. The genetic relationships were consistent with the results of interspecific hybridization among these species.