Analysis of chromosomal homologies between two species of the subgenus Sophophora: D. miranda and D. melanogaster using cloned DNA segments.

Chromosomal homology between two species of the subgenus Sophophora, D. miranda and D. melanogaster, belonging to the obscura and the melanogaster group respectively, was probed by DNA in situ cross hybridizations. A set of recombinant plasmids with inserts derived from the D. melanogaster genome were cross hybridized to the D. miranda karyotype. Vice versa, recombinant Lambda phages isolated from a genomic D. miranda library were localized in D. miranda and probed for localization in D. melanogaster. In the main, the results support the homology relations proposed on the basis of cytogenetic data. However, the location of both tandemly repetitive genes tested, 5S RNA genes and the histone genes, is not in accordance with expectation. The 5S RNA genes, when probed with the D. melanogaster plasmid 12D8 (Artavanis-Tsakonas et al., 1977), were found to occur at two sites in both, D. miranda and D. pseudoobscura.