Hitchhiking mapping:: A population-based fine-mapping strategy for adaptive mutations in Drosophila melanogaster

The identification of genes contributing to the adaptation of local populations is of great biological interest. In an attempt to characterize functionally important differences among African and non-African Drosophila melanogaster populations, we surveyed neutral microsatellite variation in an 850-kb genomic sequence. Three genomic regions were identified that putatively bear an adaptive mutation associated with the habitat expansion of D. melanogaster. A further inspection of two regions by sequence analysis of multiple fragments confirmed the presence of a recent beneficial mutation in the non-African populations. Our study suggests that hitchhiking mapping is a universal approach for the identification of ecologically important mutations.