Serga S. Reproductive parasites in drosophila natural populations of Ukraine and their influence on genetic processes in Drosophila melanogaster

Object - reproductive parasites of laboratory strains and natural populations of D. melanogaster from Ukraine; goal - determination of trends in the dispersal and dynamics of reproductive parasite infections in natural populations of D. melanogaster from Ukraine and their influence on genetic processes in infected individuals; methods - genetic, molecular biology, statistical, bioinformatic; novelty - for the first time we analyzed the infection status of a numbers of natural populations of drosophila from Ukraine and revealed that sex ratios in progeny of wild-caught D. melanogaster are affected by gram-negative bacteria sensitive to the antibiotics tetracycline and promixine B, for the first time we show that Wolbachia affect mutation processes and do not affect crossing-over and gonadal dysgenesis in dysgenic crosses caused by P element; results - we demonstrate stability of infection with reproductive parasite Wolbachia in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster and provide first evidence of presence of Spiroplasma poulsonii in drosophila populations of Eurasia, we show that gram-negative bacteria sensitive to tetracycline and promixine B affect the sex ratio towards increasing the proportion of females, we show that Wolbachia influence mutation processes in Drosophila melanogaster and do not affect crossing-over, sex ratio and gonad reduction induced by P element activation; branch - genetics.