The Genetics of Evolutionary Inference in Drosophila

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This research will try to answer basic questions about how populations of organisms evolve. Two closely related species, Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans, will be studied because they are easy to rear in the laboratory and because a great deal is known about them. The most common procedure to be used will be obtaining the sequence of the DNA of genes in several individuals from both of these species. The sequences of six different genes will be studied. By comparing DNA sequences it will be clear how different these two species are at the DNA level as well as how different individuals from the same species are at the DNA level. These data will be compared to mathematical models of the evolutionary process. If the data fit the models well, then the models can be very useful for asking questions about how natural selection affects the amount of DNA divergence seen between individuals and between species. If the data fit the models poorly, then our understanding of evolution that produced the models is incorrect, and the models must be revised.