Evolution of arginine kinase within the genus Drosophila

The rate of evolution and extant levels of polymorphism for arginine kinase were examined in species of the genus Drosophila. Surveys of 11 species for electrophoretic variation revealed an average heterozygosity of 0.003. Using antisera prepared against arginine kinase purified from a representative of each of three major subdivisions of the genus, immunological distances were measured by microcomplement fixation (MC'F) assay for 20 species of Drosophila. These data are consistent with the broad outline of the phylogenetic relationships within the genus suggested by other kinds of data. The unit evolutionary period for Drosophila arginine kinase was estimated to be 59 million years (MY). This contrasts with an estimate of 30 MY as the unit evolutionary period for vertebrate creatine kinase. It is suggested that this difference in evolutionary rate arises because a single gene encodes Drosophila arginine kinase, whereas at least three different genes encode the various forms of vertebrate creatine kinase.