Karyotype Differentiation in Newly Discovered Members of the Drosophila obscura Species Group from Yunnan,China

We examined mitotic chromosomes of three newly found members of the Drosophila obscura species group,D.luguensis,D.dianensis and D.limingi from Yunnan and compared their karyotypes to those of respective related species.D.luguensis possessed a diploid number of 12 chromosomes,comprising 3 pairs of metacentrics (V-shaped),2 pairs of acrocentrics (rod-like) and 1 pair of micro-chromosomes (dot-like).Both the X and Y were metacentrics.D.dianensis and D.limingi possessed a diploid number of 10 chromosomes,comprising 1 pair of large V-shaped,1 pair of moderate-sized V-shaped,2 pairs of submetacentric (J-shaped) chromosomes,and 1 pairs of dot-like chromosomes,with their X chromosomes were J-shaped and Y chromosomes were short rod-like ones.Based upon the results of chromosomal comparisons,geographic information of the sinobscura subgroup,as well inter-specific phylogenetic relationship deduced elsewhere,D.luguensis was considered to retain an ancestral form of the karyotype within this subgroup.The present observations have also implied that D.sinobscura (2n=12:2V,1J,2R,1D) might have derived from a sub-lineage of a pre-"sinobscurahubeiensis" lineage by pericentric inversion of moderate-sized metacentric autosomes and D.hubeiensis (2n=10:4V,1D) from another sub-lineage of the same lineage by centric fusion of 2 pairs of acrocentric autosomes.Similar chromosomal changes of centric fusion,centric fission and/or pericentric inversion might have occurred during the course of species divergences between D.dianensis and D.subsilvestris (2n=12:3V,2R,1D),an European member closely related to D.dianensis,and between D.limingi and D.tsukubaensis (2n=12:3V,2R,1D),an East Asian member near to D.limingi.