ArticleMolecular biology and evolution2020
Recurrent Collection of Drosophila melanogaster from Wild African Environments and Genomic Insights into Species History.
Article in Molecular biology and evolution, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 59 papers.
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59 citing papers in PubMed, 102 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Recombination Suppression Drives Expansion of the Drosophila Dot Chromosome.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Expression of De Novo Open Reading Frames in Natural Populations of Drosophila melanogaster.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2025Article
- Continent-wide differentiation of fitness traits and patterns of climate adaptation among European populations ofEvolution letters · 2025Article
- Footprints of Worldwide Adaptation in Structured Populations of Drosophila melanogaster Through the Expanded DEST 2.0 Genomic Resource.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Purifying selection shapes the dynamics of P-element invasion in Drosophila simulans populations.Genome biology · 2025Article
- Dinucleotide preferences underlie apparent codon preference reversals in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Courtship song differs between African and European populations of Drosophila melanogaster and involves a strong effect locus.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Article
- Recombinant inbred line panels inform the genetic architecture and interactions of adaptive traits in Drosophila melanogaster.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
A long-standing enigma concerns the geographic and ecological origins of the intensively studied vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster. This globally distributed human commensal is thought to originate from sub-Saharan Africa, yet until recently, it had never been reported from undisturbed wilderness environments that could reflect its precommensal niche. Here, we document the collection of 288 D. melanogaster individuals from multiple African wilderness areas in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. The presence of D. melanogaster in these remote woodland environments is consistent with an ancestral range in southern-central Africa, as opposed to equatorial regions. After sequencing the genomes of 17 wilderness-collected flies collected from Kafue National Park in Zambia, we found reduced genetic diversity relative to town populations, elevated chromosomal inversion frequencies, and strong differences at specific genes including known insecticide targets. Combining these genomes with existing data, we probed the history of this species' geographic expansion. Demographic estimates indicated that expansion from southern-central Africa began ∼10,000 years ago, with a Saharan crossing soon after, but expansion from the Middle East into Europe did not begin until roughly 1,400 years ago. This improved model of demographic history will provide an important resource for future evolutionary and genomic studies of this key model organism. Our findings add context to the history of D. melanogaster, while opening the door for future studies on the biological basis of adaptation to human environments.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.