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Mentor: Dean Castillo

Drosophila melanogaster are common model organisms used to detect selective sweeps. Selective sweeps are when a favorable allele increases rapid across a population leading to a small genetic diversity. Two measures of diversity used in this project were Fst and pi. Fst is the genetic variation between two populations while pi is the genetic variation found within one population. The predicted pattern is high Fst and low pi however, some genes follow an unusual pattern when evaluating two species. For example, sex peptide, a gene found in males that produces post-mating responses, such as decreased metabolism, in females. Sex peptide presents with a high Fst and a high pi value which is abnormal. This unusual pattern suggests strong local selection that is frequency dependent.