Nucleotide diversity in the Hsp90 gene in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster from Australia

Abstract

Hsp90 is regarded as one of the best candidates for an evolved mechanism that regulates the expression of genetic and phenotypic variability. We examined nucleotide diversity in both the promoter and coding regions of Hsp90, the gene which encodes Hsp90 in Drosophila, in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster from eastern Australia. We found that Hsp90 is polymorphic for only two nonsynonymous changes in the coding region, both of which are deletions of a lysine residue. One of these lysine deletions was in complete linkage disequilibrium with the inversion In(3L)P, and showed a significant association with latitude. The other lysine deletion reported here for the first time varied f..