GENETIC DIVERSITY IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER MEIGEN, 1830 FROM SAVANNA ZONE OF NIGERIA USING MICROSATELLITE MARKERS
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Evolution is the dual process of genetic change and diversification of organisms through time resulting in populations diverging from one another in their genetic characteristics thus giving rise to new species. The leading evolutionary forces such as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift have created a vast diversity of sub populations which led to the formation of many well defined species with different levels of performance (Mahmut, 2012).
Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is generally known as fruit fly or vinegar fly. The fly is said to have probably originated from sub-Sahara Africa (Capy et al., 2004), but is also able to proliferate under temperate climate which could be as a result of the spread of beneficial mutations in non- Africa populations (Kirby and Stephan 1996; Kauer et al., 2003) and selection pressure imposed by man such as the species resistance to insecticides (Daborn et al., 2001). Drosophila melanogaster is probably considered the most differentiated into geographic subpopulations (David et al., 2007).Wild type fruit flies are yellow-brown, with brick red eyes and transverse black rings across the abdomen. They, exhibit sexual dimorphism, females are about 2.5 millimeters (0.098 in) long; males are slightly smaller with a distinct black patch on the abdomen, and a cluster of spiky hairs (claspers) surrounding the reproducing parts used for attachment to the female during mating (Flybase, 2009). The “Drosophila season” as stated by Pavkovic and Kekic (2014) is usually between March to October due to abundance of fruits and vegetables.
Although there are obvious differences between humans and D. melanogaster, there are many molecular and cellular processes that are common between humans and the fruit fly such as aggression, sleep, learning, memory, circadian rhythm and mating which makes the fruit fly an important model in the investigation on functions of specific genes, diseases and effectiveness of various promising therapeutic drugs (Valente et al., 2004).
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GENETIC DIVERSITY IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER MEIGEN, 1830 FROM SAVANNA ZONE OF NIGERIA USING MICROSATELLITE MARKERS
