Electrophoretic analysis of genetic diversity in natural house fly (Musca domestica L.) populations from the western and southern coasts of Turkey

Abstract

In this study genetic variation was determined with isozyme analysis in 8 natural house fly (Musca domestica L.) populations from the western and southern coasts of Turkey, a part of the southern Palearctic region. For this purpose, 7 isozyme systems (ACP, AOX, CAT, HBDH, HXK, MDH, and SOD) were resolved using the native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (native-PAGE) technique. A total of 9 loci and 20 alleles were detected. The proportion of polymorphic loci in populations ranged from 44.44% to 66.67%. The overall mean number of effective alleles per locus (Ne) was 1.314 +/- 0.454. The mean estimated expected heterozygosity (He) of populations was 0.177 +/- 0.228. A very high proportion (93.70%) of genetic diversity was due to variation within populations while a relatively small portion (6.30%) was due to variation among populations. The average level of gene flow (Nm) was calculated to be 3.7182 per generation among all populations studied. The gene flow detected among the Aegean populations (Nm = 6.4451) was 2 times higher than the gene flow detected among the Mediterranean populations (Nm = 3.3331). Our results confirmed the high levels of genetic diversity in house flies reported earlier, supporting the notion that the southern Palearctic region, particularly the Middle East, is the most likely location for the origin of M. domestica.