Capturing the process of speciation early enough to determine the initial genetic causes of reproductive isolation remains a major challenge in evolutionary biology. We have found, to our knowledge, the first example of substantial intraspecific polymorphism for genetic factors contributing to hybrid male sterility. Specifically, we show that the occurrence of hybrid male sterility in crosses b...

Recently, the search for novel products derived from natural sources has become necessary due to decreasing effectiveness of current antibiotics in treating bacteria that are antibiotic-resistant. In this context, it is well known entomopathogenic (EPBs) produce a broad range secondary metabolites with antibacterial activities. Therefore, an in-vitro trial was conducted isolate and identify non...

Bio 4342 students are currently working on finishing the Drosophila grimshawi dot chromosome and a euchromatic region of Drosophila mojavensis. Project DMAC-1a (from D. mojavensis) began in two contigs with only a single macroscale problem and a few microscale problems. Using Consed and phredPhrap, this project has been finished to completion and is now in a single contig. This paper presents t...

Divergence and speciation may occur by various means, depending on the particular history, selective environments, and genetic composition of populations. In Drosophila mojavensis, a good model of incipient speciation, understanding the population genetic structure within this group facilitates our ability to understand the context in which reproductive isolation among populations is developing...

Drosophila mojavensis and other species of the mulleri subgroup contain a duplicate gene encoding the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). Studies on the genetic relationship of the two genes using electrophoretic variants show them to be closely linked. We have cloned a 13.5-kb fragment of D. mojavensis DNA into the lambda vector, Charon 30. This fragment contains both Adh genes separated by ap...

We report genomes of two species of cactophilic Drosophila: Drosophila arizonae and D. navojoa These two are the closest relatives of D. mojavensis, forming the D. mojavensis cluster. D. mojavensis and D. arizonae diverged from D. navojoa ∼5.8 Mya, while the split between D. arizonae and D. mojavensis is more recent, at 1.5 Mya. Together the three genomes provide opportunities to examine genomi...