Ceratitis capitata: Suitable markers for population genetics and genome organization analysis

Biochemical and molecular markers (RAPD) can be used for population genetics and genome analysis of the Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly), Ceratitis capitata. At the population level, biochemical markers allowed recognition of: (a) the presence of geographical genetic heterogeneity, and (b) provided information on the relative contribution of different types of evolutionary forces during the process of colonization. The polymorphisms in genomic finger-prints, generated by the RAPD approach, provide a tool to improve the significance of the estimates of genetic relatedness between medfly populations, as well as being able to distinguish between slightly divergent flies. For genome organization analysis, biochemical markers provided information on the relationship of genome structure to genome function. The RAPD approach may provide a new tool to explore and completely map the medfly genome. (author). 17 refs, 1 fig