Phylogeography of the Drosophila sturtevanti (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in areas of the Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Drosophila sturtevanti present a widely geographic distribution and greater abundance in forest biomes within the sturtevanti subgroup and even the saltans group of Drosophila, considered a great organism for phylogeographic studies. Although some molecular studies have already been conducted in populations of D. sturtevanti, no data correlating the geographical and genetic distributions for the species, as well as data to understand the factors responsible for the pattern found. Habitat loss is the main threat to the species that occupy the biome of the Atlantic Forest and conservation in the long term remains to be a challenging task. This project will study the population structure of this species through mitochondrial molecular markers (COI and COII genes) and autosomal nuclear gene Per to check for a biogeographical distribution model for the biome of the Atlantic Forest. This project is linked to a larger project (FAPESP number 2014/14059-0) assessing the biodiversity of this species in Atlantic areas as the morphologic and microsatellite parameters with a view to their application in environmental conservation. (AU)