Diptera and Drosophila Karyotype Databases: A Useful Dataset to Guide Evolutionary and Genomic Studies

Abstract

Karyotypes and chromosome data have been widely used in many subfields of biology over the last century. Unfortunately, this data is largely scattered among hundreds of articles, books, and theses, many of which are only available behind paywalls. This creates a barrier to new researchers wishing to use this data, especially those from smaller institutions or in countries lacking institutional access to much of the scientific literature. We solved this problem by building two datasets for true flies (Order: Diptera and one specific to Drosophila), These datasets are available via a public interactive database that allows users to explore, visualize and download all data. The Diptera karyotype databases currently contain a total of 3,474 karyotype records from 538 publications. Synthesizing this data, we show several groups are of particular interest for future investigations by whole genome sequencing.

Metaphase chromosomes of five Neotropical species of the genus Drosophila (Diptera, Drosophilidae)

“…According to the information available in the Drosophila karyotype databases ( Morelli et al 2022 ), the chromosome number 2n = 6 is rarely reported in Drosophila subgenus. Only thirteen species of Drosophila subgenus present three pairs of chromosomes: D. canalinea Patterson et Mainland, 1944 from D. canalinea group, D. dreyfusi and D. wingei Cordeiro, 1964 from D. dreyfusi group, D. albomicans Duda, 1923, D. annulipes Duda, 1924, D. neohypocausta Lin et Wheeler, 1973 from D. immigrans group, D. atalaia Vilela et Sene, 1982 from D. peruensis group, D. pinicola Sturtevant, 1942 from D. pinicola group, D. quinaria Loew, 1866 from D. quinaria group; D. neoguaramunu Frydenberg, 1956 from D. tripunctata group, D. montana Patterson et Wheeler, 1942 from D. virilis group, D. aracea Heed et Wheeler, 1957 and D. tranquilla Spencer, 1942 (not grouped).…”

“…Most species of the D. tripunctata group have a karyotype 2n = 12, the sixth pair is a dot chromosome; some members of D. tripunctata group have a karyotype 2n = 10 ( Morelli et al 2022 ). In the karyotype of D. ninarumi , 2n = 10, it is present a dot-like fifth pair of chromosome (Fig.…”