Genetic polymorphism at two linked loci, Sod and Est-6, in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

We have examined the patterns of polymorphism at two linked loci, Sod and Est-6, separated by nearly 1000 kb on the left arm of chromosome 3 of Drosophila melanogaster. The evidence suggests that natural selection has been involved in shaping the polymorphisms. At the Sod locus, a fairly strong (s>0.01) selective sweep, started >or=2600 years ago, increased the frequency of a rare haplotype, F(A), to about 50% frequency in populations of Europe, Asia, and the Americas. More recently, an F(A) allele mutated to an S allele, which has increased to frequencies 5-15% in populations of Europe, Asia and North America. All S alleles are identical (or very nearly) in sequence and differ by one nucleotide substitution (which accounts for the F-->S electrophoretic difference) from F(A) alleles. At the Est-6 locus, the evidence indicates both directional and balancing selection impacting separately the promoter and the coding regions of the gene, with linkage disequilibrium occurring within each region. Some linkage disequilibrium also exists between the two genes.