The mitochondrial DNA restriction patterns of seven natural populations of Drosophila immigrans from North Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan were analyzed. Using twelve restriction endonucleases we recognized a total of 18 mtDNA haplotypes. The mean number of nucleotide substitutions between mtDNA haplotypes (πij) was estimated to be from 0.002 to 0.016. The amount of mtDNA divergence within a population (π) was estimated to be from 0.0014 to 0.0077, while the net nucleotide differentiation among populations (d) ranged from -0.0004 to 0.0045. The estimated Gst value from mtDNA haplotype frequencies of each population was 0.205, indicating relatively uniform genetic constitution throughout the investigated D. immigrans populations. However, nucleotide diversity of the seven populations showed that the Taiwan and the southern Japan populations formed one cluster; the Sapporo population is slightly distanced from this cluster. The latitudinal systematic mtDNA differentiation among populations is discussed.
Intra-specific variation
