SATELLITE DNAs IN THE EMBRYOS OF VARIOUS SPECIES OF THE GENUS DROSOPHILA

E. C. Travaglini ¹, J. Petrovic ¹, and J. Schultz ¹

¹ The Institute for Cancer Research, Fox Chase, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19111

A tentative evolutionary pattern has been found for two classes of the multiple satellite DNA's found in the genus Drosophila. The satellite DNA's from five Drosophila species (D. melanogaster, D. simulans, D. nasuta, D. virilis and D. hydei) were analyzed and found to fall into three arbitrary CsCl buoyant density classes: Class I, = 1.661–1.669 g cm^-3, DNA molecules composed of primarily dA and dT moieties; Class II, = 1.685 and = 1.692, DNA molecules of low GC content; and Class III, = 1.711, a DNA of high GC composition. The dAT satellite DNA's appear in all the species studied except D. hydei, the species of most recent evolutionary divergence, whereas the heavy satellite appears only in the two species of most recent divergence, D. virilis and D. hydei.