Mitochondrial DNA variability in natural populations of Hawaiian Drosophila. I. Methods and levels of variability in D. silvestris and D. heteroneura populations

Abstract

We describe techniques by which mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction site information can be obtained for up to 16 different restriction endonucleases on individual Hawaiian Drosophila, in particular D. silvestris and D. heteroneura. We have constructed mtDNA restriction site maps for a total of forty-eight wild caught genomes of both species, from seven major collecting sites on the island of Hawaii. Levels of variability are, in general, high in D. silvestris (p of Ewens et al., 1981 = 00486) and lower in D. heteroneura (p=00327). Measures of population subdivision using Nei's G_st indicate that about 50–60 per cent of the observed variability is due to interdemic subdivision. In accordance, populations within a species show a much lower level of variability, however some populations harbour individuals that are very divergent from the rest of their conspecifics at the same locality. We review two possible mechanisms that could explain the presence of these divergent individuals, hybridisation and the effects of stochastic branching processes.