Studies on mitochondrial DNA from Florida Anastrepha suspensa have shown there are two mitochondrial haplotypes present in colony flies from Gainesville and Miami and also in feral flies. The types can be distinguished by the presence of an additional HaeIII site in about 40% of the population. The site is located in the ATPase 6 gene. In addition to the HaeIII site, there are three additional silent mutations in this gene. The mutations usually appear as a cassette with only two of 54 flies showing an anomaly (0.93% for the 4 sites). The flies also have a hypervariable intergenic spacer of between the tRNA-Leu and cytochrome oxidase II genes. There are two characteristic patterns in the intergenic spacer, differing in sequence domain structure and sequence length. These characteristic patterns correlate strongly but not absolutely with one or the other of the two types (c2=20.25). These findings are being used to discern the origin of this pest insect which was introduced into Florida in the 1960s.
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