Variation and Divergence of Multilocus Genome Markers in the Species of the Genus Chironomus (Diptera, Chironomidae)

Variation and divergence patterns of the multilocus genome markers in twelve Chironomus species belonging to the plumosus and piger sibling-species groups were examined by use of polymerase chain reaction with arbitrary primers (RAPD method). The chironomid species showed high levels of the RAPD markers polymorphism. The genetic distances (GD) were determined between the species within the group of closely related species, as well as between the species from different groups. The estimates obtained characterized the divergence levels between the sibling species (GD = 0.739) and morphologically distinct species (GD = 0.935). Comparison of the variation and divergence levels of the RAPD markers with those for the other genome markers, namely, the enzyme-coding genes and chromosomes (gene linkage groups) have demonstrated different divergence rates for different genome components during speciation of chironimids.