| 1. |
- Abbott, J. K., et al.
(författare)
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Patterns of differentiation in a colour polymorphism and in neutral markers reveal rapid genetic changes in natural damselfly populations
- 2008
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 17:6, s. 1597-1604
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The existence and mode of selection operating on heritable adaptive traits can be inferred by comparing population differentiation in neutral genetic variation between populations (often using F-ST values) with the corresponding estimates for adaptive traits. Such comparisons indicate if selection acts in a diversifying way between populations, in which case differentiation in selected traits is expected to exceed differentiation in neutral markers [F-ST (selected) > F-ST (neutralfl, or if negative frequency-dependent selection maintains genetic polymorphisms and pulls populations towards a common stable equilibrium [FST (selected) < F-ST (neutral)]. Here, we compared F-ST values for putatively neutral data (obtained using amplified fragment length polymorphism) with estimates of differentiation in morph frequencies in the colour-polymorphic damselfly Ischnura elegans. We found that in the first year (2000), population differentiation in morph frequencies was significantly greater than differentiation in neutral loci, while in 2002 (only 2 years and 2 generations later), population differentiation in morph frequencies had decreased to a level significantly lower than differentiation in neutral loci. Genetic drift as an explanation for population differentiation in morph frequencies could thus be rejected in both years. These results indicate that the type and/or strength of selection on morph frequencies in this system can change substantially between years. We suggest that an approach to a common equilibrium morph frequency across all populations, driven by negative frequency-dependent selection, is the cause of these temporal changes. We conclude that inferences about selection obtained by comparing F-ST values from neutral and adaptive genetic variation are most useful when spatial and temporal data are available from several populations and time points and when such information is combined with other ecological sources of data.
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| 2. |
- Bensch, Staffan, et al.
(författare)
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Genetic, morphological, and feather isotope variation of migratory willow warblers show gradual divergence in a ring.
- 2009
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 18:14, s. 3087-96
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The circular distribution of the willow warbler Phylloscopus trochilus around the Baltic Sea shares many features with the classic examples of ring species; however, the system is much younger. It has previously been shown that a secondary contact zone is located in central Scandinavia, where there are narrow clines for several morphological traits coincident with a migratory divide. Here we analyse multiple traits and genes from > 1700 males captured on breeding territories at 77 sites spread around the Baltic Sea to test the following hypothesis. If the secondary contact zone in Scandinavia is a result of divergence in two allopatric refuge populations during the last glaciation, we expect to find a similar secondary contact zone somewhere else around the circular distribution. Our results show that the trait clines were wider and displaced from each other along the eastern side of the Baltic Sea. Analyses of 12 microsatellite loci confirmed that the genome is very similar between the terminal forms (F(ST) = 0). Two AFLP-derived markers filtered out from a genomic scan instead appear to be maintained by selection. These markers exhibited steep clines at the secondary contact zone in Scandinavia, but as for the phenotypic traits, had vastly different cline centres east of the Baltic Sea. The trait clines along the ring distribution outside the Scandinavian secondary contact zone thus seem to have been shaped by independent action of selection or drift during the process of postglacial colonization.
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| 3. |
- Eroukhmanoff, Fabrice, et al.
(författare)
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Rapid adaptive divergence between ecotypes of an aquatic isopod inferred from F-ST-Q(ST) analysis
- 2009
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - Oxford, United Kingdom : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 18:23, s. 4912-4923
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Divergent natural selection is often thought to be the principal factor driving phenotypic differentiation between populations. We studied two ecotypes of the aquatic isopod Asellus aquaticus which have diverged in parallel in several Swedish lakes. In these lakes, isopods from reed belts along the shores colonized new stonewort stands in the centre of the lakes and rapid phenotypic changes in size and pigmentation followed after colonization. We investigated if selection was likely to be responsible for these observed phenotypic changes using indirect inferences of selection (F-ST-Q(ST) analysis). Average Q(ST) for seven quantitative traits were higher than the average F-ST between ecotypes for putatively neutral markers (AFLPs). This suggests that divergent natural selection has played an important role during this rapid diversification. In contrast, the average Q(ST) between the different reed ecotype populations was not significantly different from the mean F-ST. Genetic drift could therefore not be excluded as an explanation for the minor differences between allopatric populations inhabiting the same source habitat. We complemented this traditional F-ST-Q(ST) approach by comparing the F-ST distributions across all loci (n = 67-71) with the Q(ST) for each of the seven traits. This analysis revealed that pigmentation traits had diverged to a greater extent and at higher evolutionary rates than size-related morphological traits. In conclusion, this extended and detailed type of F-ST-Q(ST) analysis provides a powerful method to infer adaptive phenotypic divergence between populations. However, indirect inferences about the operation of divergent selection should be analyzed on a per-trait basis and complemented with detailed ecological information.
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| 4. |
- Hellgren, Olof, et al.
(författare)
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Bird hosts, blood parasites and their vectors--associations uncovered by molecular analyses of blackfly blood meals.
- 2008
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 17:6, s. 1605-13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The level of host specificity of blood-sucking invertebrates may have both ecological and evolutionary implications for the parasites they are transmitting. We used blood mealsfrom wild-caught blackflies for molecular identification of parasites and hosts to examine patterns of host specificity and how these may affect the transmission of avian blood parasites of the genus Leucocytozoon. We found that five different species of ornithophilic blackflies preferred different species of birds when taking their blood meals. Of the blackflies that contained avian blood meals, 62% were infected with Leucocytozoon parasites, consisting of 15 different parasite lineages. For the blackfly species, there was a significant association between the host width (measured as the genetic differentiation between the used hosts) and the genetic similarity of the parasites in their blood meals. The absence of similar parasite in blood meals from blackflies with different host preferences is interpreted as a result of the vector–host associations. The observed associations between blackfly species and host species are therefore likely to hinder parasites to be transmitted between different host-groups, resulting in ecologically driven associations between certain parasite lineages and hosts species.
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| 5. |
- Pommier, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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Global patterns of diversity and community structure in marine bacterioplankton
- 2007
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - : Blackwell Publishing Ltd. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 16:4, s. 867-880
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Because of their small size, great abundance and easy dispersal, it is often assumed that marine planktonic microorganisms have a ubiquitous distribution that prevents any structured assembly into local communities. To challenge this view, marine bacterioplankton communities from coastal waters at nine locations distributed world-wide were examined through the use of comprehensive clone libraries of 16S ribosomal RNA genes, used as operational taxonomic units (OTU). Our survey and analyses show that there were marked differences in the composition and richness of OTUs between locations. Remarkably, the global marine bacterioplankton community showed a high degree of endemism, and conversely included few cosmopolitan OTUs. Our data were consistent with a latitudinal gradient of OTU richness. We observed a positive relationship between the relative OTU abundances and their range of occupation, i.e. cosmopolitans had the largest population sizes. Although OTU richness differed among locations, the distributions of the major taxonomic groups represented in the communities were analogous, and all local communities were similarly structured and dominated by a few OTUs showing variable taxonomic affiliations. The observed patterns of OTU richness indicate that similar evolutionary and ecological processes structured the communities. We conclude that marine bacterioplankton share many of the biogeographical and macroecological features of macroscopic organisms. The general processes behind those patterns are likely to be comparable across taxa and major global biomes.
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| 6. |
- Hoffman, Eric A., et al.
(författare)
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Genetic structure in the coral-reef-associated Banggai cardinalfish, Pterapogon kauderni
- 2005
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 14:5, s. 1367-1375
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study, we used 11 polymorphic microsatellite loci to show that oceanic distances as small as 2–5 km are sufficient to produce high levels of population genetic structure (multilocus FST as high as 0.22) in the Banggai cardinalfish(Pterapogon kauderni), a heavily exploited reef fish lacking a pelagic larval dispersal phase. Global FST among all populations, separated by a maximum distance of 203 km, was 0.18 (RST = 0.35). Moreover, two lines of evidence suggest that estimates of FST may actually underestimate the true level of genetic structure. First, within-locus FST values were consistently close to the theoretical maximum set by the average within-population heterozygosity. Second, the allele size permutation test showed that RST values were significantly larger than FST values, indicating that populations have been isolated long enough for mutation to have played a role in generating allelic variation among populations. The high level of microspatial structure observed in this marine fish indicates that life history traits such as lack of pelagic larval phase and a good homing ability do indeed play a role in shaping population genetic structure in the marine realm.
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| 7. |
- Koblmüller, Stephan, et al.
(författare)
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More is Better
- 2009
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 18:24, s. 4994-4996
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 8. |
- Axelsson, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Natural selection in protein-coding genes expressed in avian brain
- 2008
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 17:12, s. 3008-3017
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The evolution of birds from theropod dinosaurs took place approximately 150 million years ago, and was associated with a number of specific adaptations that are still evident among extant birds, including feathers, song and extravagant secondary sexual characteristics. Knowledge about the molecular evolutionary background to such adaptations is lacking. Here, we analyse the evolution of > 5000 protein-coding gene sequences expressed in zebra finch brain by comparison to orthologous sequences in chicken. Mean d(N)/d(S) is 0.085 and genes with their maximal expression in the eye and central nervous system have the lowest mean d(N)/d(S) value, while those expressed in digestive and reproductive tissues exhibit the highest. We find that fast-evolving genes (those which have higher than expected rate of nonsynonymous substitution, indicative of adaptive evolution) are enriched for biological functions such as fertilization, muscle contraction, defence response, response to stress, wounding and endogenous stimulus, and cell death. After alignment to mammalian orthologues, we identify a catalogue of 228 genes that show a significantly higher rate of protein evolution in the two bird lineages than in mammals. These accelerated bird genes, representing candidates for avian-specific adaptations, include genes implicated in vocal learning and other cognitive processes. Moreover, colouration genes evolve faster in birds than in mammals, which may have been driven by sexual selection for extravagant plumage characteristics.
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| 9. |
- Backström, Niclas, et al.
(författare)
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Genomics of natural bird populations : a gene-based set of reference markers evenly spread across the avian genome
- 2008
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 17:4, s. 964-980
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although there is growing interest to take genomics into the complex realms of natural populations, there is a general shortage of genomic resources and tools available for wild species. This applies not at least to birds, for which genomic approaches should be helpful to questions such as adaptation, speciation and population genetics. In this study, we describe a genome-wide reference set of conserved avian gene markers, broadly applicable across birds. By aligning protein-coding sequences from the recently assembled chicken genome with orthologous sequences in zebra finch, we identified particularly conserved exonic regions flanking introns of suitable size for subsequent amplification and sequencing. Primers were designed for 242 gene markers evenly distributed across the chicken genome, with a mean inter-marker interval of 4.2 Mb. Between 78% and 93% of the markers amplified a specific product in five species tested (chicken, peregrine falcon, collared flycatcher, great reed warbler and blue tit). Two hundred markers were sequenced in collared flycatcher, yielding a total of 122.41 kb of genomic DNA sequence (12096 bp coding sequence and 110 314 bp noncoding). Intron size of collared flycatcher and chicken was highly correlated, as was GC content. A polymorphism screening using these markers in a panel of 10 unrelated collared flycatchers identified 871 single nucleotide polymorphisms (pi = 0.0029) and 33 indels (mainly very short). Avian genome characteristics such as uniform genome size and low rate of syntenic rearrangements suggest that this marker set will find broad utility as a genome-wide reference resource for molecular ecological and population genomic analysis of birds. We envision that it will be particularly useful for obtaining large-scale orthologous targets in different species--important in, for instance, phylogenetics--and for large-scale identification of evenly distributed single nucleotide polymorphisms needed in linkage mapping or in studies of gene flow and hybridization.
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| 10. |
- Dalén, Love, et al.
(författare)
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Population structure in a critically endangered arctic fox population : does genetics matter?
- 2006
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 15:10, s. 2809-2819
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) in Scandinavia is classified as critically endangered after having gone through a severe decline in population size in the beginning of the 20th century, from which it has failed to recover despite more than 65 years of protection. Arctic foxes have a high dispersal rate and often disperse over long distances, suggesting that there was probably little population differentiation within Scandinavia prior to the bottleneck. It is, however, possible that the recent decline in population size has led to a decrease in dispersal and an increase in population fragmentation. To examine this, we used 10 microsatellite loci to analyse genetic variation in 150 arctic foxes from Scandinavia and Russia. The results showed that the arctic fox in Scandinavia presently is subdivided into four populations, and that the Kola Peninsula and northwest Russia together form a large fifth population. Current dispersal between the populations seemed to be very low, but genetic variation within them was relatively high. This and the relative F-ST values among the populations are consistent with a model of recent fragmentation within Scandinavia. Since the amount of genetic variation is high within the populations, but the populations are small and isolated, demographic stochasticity seems to pose a higher threat to the populations' persistence than inbreeding depression and low genetic variation.
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