Dispersal patterns of Reeves’s pheasant based on genetic and behavioral evidence
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PROVIDER: S-EPMC11336679 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Infectious disease has been shown to be a major cause of population declines in wild animals. However, there remains little empirical evidence on the genetic consequences of disease-mediated population declines, or how such perturbations might affect demographic processes such as dispersal. Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) has resulted in the rapid decline of the Tasmanian devil, Sarcophilus harrisii, and threatens to cause extinction. Using 10 microsatellite DNA markers, we compared genetic diversity and structure before and after DFTD outbreaks in three Tasmanian devil populations to assess the genetic consequences of disease-induced population decline. We also used both genetic and demographic data to investigate dispersal patterns in Tasmanian devils along the east coast of Tasmania. We observed a significant increase in inbreeding (F(IS) pre/post-disease -0.030/0.012, P<0.05; relatedness pre/post-disease 0.011/0.038, P=0.06) in devil populations after just 2-3 generations of disease arrival, but no detectable change in genetic diversity. Furthermore, although there was no subdivision apparent among pre-disease populations (θ=0.005, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.003 to 0.017), we found significant genetic differentiation among populations post-disease (θ=0.020, 0.010-0.027), apparently driven by a combination of selection and altered dispersal patterns of females in disease-affected populations. We also show that dispersal is male-biased in devils and that dispersal distances follow a typical leptokurtic distribution. Our results show that disease can result in genetic and demographic changes in host populations over few generations and short time scales. Ongoing management of Tasmanian devils must now attempt to maintain genetic variability in this species through actions designed to reverse the detrimental effects of inbreeding and subdivision in disease-affected populations.
| S-EPMC3183847 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Most previous attempts at reconstructing the past history of human populations did not explicitly take geography into account or considered very simple scenarios of migration and ignored environmental information. However, it is likely that the last glacial maximum (LGM) affected the demography and the range of many species, including our own. Moreover, long-distance dispersal (LDD) may have been an important component of human migrations, allowing fast colonization of new territories and preserving high levels of genetic diversity. Here, we use a high-quality microsatellite data set genotyped in 22 populations to estimate the posterior probabilities of several scenarios for the settlement of the Old World by modern humans. We considered models ranging from a simple spatial expansion to others including LDD and a LGM-induced range contraction, as well as Neolithic demographic expansions. We find that scenarios with LDD are much better supported by data than models without LDD. Nevertheless, we show evidence that LDD events to empty habitats were strongly prevented during the settlement of Eurasia. This unexpected absence of LDD ahead of the colonization wave front could have been caused by an Allee effect, either due to intrinsic causes such as an inbreeding depression built during the expansion or due to extrinsic causes such as direct competition with archaic humans. Overall, our results suggest only a relatively limited effect of the LGM contraction on current patterns of human diversity. This is in clear contrast with the major role of LDD migrations, which have potentially contributed to the intermingled genetic structure of Eurasian populations.
| S-EPMC4776706 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is a semi-domesticated fruit tree of moderate importance in the Neotropics, utilized for millennia due to its nutritional and medicinal benefits, but its origin of domestication remains unknown. In this study, we examine genetic diversity and population structure in 215 plants from 11 countries in Mesoamerica, the Andes, and Amazonia using 25 nuclear microsatellite loci to propose an origin of domestication. Genetic analyses reveal one gene pool in Mesoamerica (Mexico) and four in South America (Brazilian Amazonia, Peruvian Amazonia and Andes, and Colombia), indicating greater differentiation among localities, possibly due to isolation between guava populations, particularly in the Amazonian and Andean regions. Moreover, Mesoamerican populations show high genetic diversity, with moderate genetic structure due to gene flow from northern South American populations. Dispersal scenarios suggest that Brazilian Amazonia is the probable origin of guava domestication, spreading from there to the Peruvian Andes, northern South America, Central America, and Mexico. These findings present the first evidence of guava domestication in the Americas, contributing to a deeper understanding of its evolutionary history.
| S-EPMC11231237 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Dispersal in most group-living species ensures gene flow among groups, but in cooperative social spiders, juvenile dispersal is suppressed and colonies are highly inbred. It has been suggested that such inbred sociality is advantageous in the short term, but likely to lead to extinction or reduced speciation rates in the long run. In this situation, very low levels of dispersal and gene flow among colonies may have unusually important impacts on fitness and persistence of social spiders. We investigated sex-specific differences in dispersal and gene flow among colonies, as reflected in the genetic structure within colonies and populations of the African social spider Stegodyphus dumicola Pocock, 1898 (Eresidae). We used DNA fingerprinting and mtDNA sequence data along with spatial mapping of colonies to compare male and female patterns of relatedness within and among colonies at three study sites. Samples were collected during and shortly after the mating season to detect sex-specific dispersal. Distribution of mtDNA haplotypes was consistent with proliferation of social nests by budding and medium- to long-distance dispersal by ballooning females. Analysis of molecular variance and spatial autocorrelation analyses of AFLPs showed high levels of genetic similarity within colonies, and STRUCTURE analyses revealed that the number of source populations contributing to colonies ranged from one to three. We also showed significant evidence of male dispersal among colonies at one site. These results support the hypothesis that in social spiders, genetic cohesion among populations is maintained by long-distance dispersal of female colony founders. Genetic diversity within colonies is maintained by colony initiation by multiple dispersing females, and adult male dispersal over short distances. Male dispersal may be particularly important in maintaining gene flow among colonies in local populations.
| S-EPMC4984519 | biostudies-literature
Project description:For many species, there is broad-scale dispersal of juvenile stages and/or long-distance migration of individuals and hence the processes that drive these various wide-ranging movements have important life-history consequences. Sea turtles are one of these paradigmatic long-distance travellers, with hatchlings thought to be dispersed by ocean currents and adults often shuttling between distant breeding and foraging grounds. Here, we use multi-disciplinary oceanographic, atmospheric and genetic mixed stock analyses to show that juvenile turtles are encountered 'downstream' at sites predicted by currents. However, in some cases, unusual occurrences of juveniles are more readily explained by storm events and we show that juvenile turtles may be displaced thousands of kilometres from their expected dispersal based on prevailing ocean currents. As such, storms may be a route by which unexpected areas are encountered by juveniles which may in turn shape adult migrations. Increased stormy weather predicted under climate change scenarios suggests an increasing role of storms in dispersal of sea turtles and other marine groups with life-stages near the ocean surface.
| S-EPMC3385747 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The host gut colonized enormous microbial community, which can be influenced by diet, diseases, behavior, age, gender, hereditary effects, and environmental factors. However, the relationship between gut microbiota and host genetic variation has not yet been elucidated. In this study, we chose five pheasant lineages-Ring-necked pheasant (RN), Manchurian pheasant (MX), Phasianus versicolor (PV), Shenhong pheasant (SP), and Melanistic mutant pheasant (MM)-to investigate the gut microbial composition of pheasants and its relationship with host genetic variation. Microbial classifications revealed 29 phyla and 241 genera presented in pheasants, with the dominant phylum of Firmicutes and the genus of Lactobacillus. Statistical analyses suggest that the relative abundance of 75 genera was significantly different among the five lineages. The most abundant genus carried by the RN and MM was Streptococcus, which was significantly lower in PV (p = 0.024). Conversely, Lactobacillus was the major genera in PV and MX. Moreover, the RN had the greatest microbial abundance, with a remarkably different microbial community than PV. The gut microbial diversity of PV was the lowest and diverged significantly from the RN and MX. Interestingly, the clustering of the MM and SP in the microbial dendrogram corresponded to their cluster in the host phylogeny. The host phylogenetic split of the RN, MX, and PV echoed their microbial distance. In conclusion, the congruence of host phylogeny and their gut microbial dendrograms implies that gut microbiota of pheasant lineages could reflect their host genetic variation.
| S-EPMC7438946 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundIn contrast to the explosive increase of a population following biological invasion, natural dispersal, i.e., when a population disperses from its original range into a new range, is a passive process that is affected by resources, the environment, and other factors. Natural dispersal is also negatively impacted by genetic drift and the founder effect. Although the fates of naturally dispersed populations are unknown, they can adapt evolutionarily over time to the new environment. Can naturally dispersed populations evolve beneficial adaptive strategies to offset these negative effects to maintain their population in a stable state?ResultsThe current study addressed this question by focusing on the toad Bombina orientalis, the population of which underwent natural dispersal following the Last Glacial Maximum in Northeast Asia. Population genetic approaches were used to determine the genetic structure, dispersal pattern, and mating system of the population of B. orientalis in northeast China (Northern population). The results showed that this northern population of B. orientalis is a typical naturally dispersed population, in which the stable genetic structure and high level of genetic diversity of the population have been maintained through the long-distance biased dispersal behavior of males and the pattern of promiscuity within the population.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that naturally dispersed populations can evolve effective adaptive strategies to maintain a stable population. Different species may have different strategies. The relevance of these maintenance mechanisms for naturally dispersed populations provide a new perspective for further understanding the processes of speciation and evolution.
| S-EPMC8182911 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Genetic variation, as a basis of evolutionary change, allows species to adapt and persist in different climates and environments. Yet, a comprehensive assessment of the drivers of genetic variation at different spatial scales is still missing in marine ecosystems. Here, we investigated the influence of environment, geographic isolation, and larval dispersal on the variation in allele frequencies, using an extensive spatial sampling (47 locations) of the striped red mullet (Mullus surmuletus) in the Mediterranean Sea. Univariate multiple regressions were used to test the influence of environment (salinity and temperature), geographic isolation, and larval dispersal on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) allele frequencies. We used Moran's eigenvector maps (db-MEMs) and asymmetric eigenvector maps (AEMs) to decompose geographic and dispersal distances in predictors representing different spatial scales. We found that salinity and temperature had only a weak effect on the variation in allele frequencies. Our results revealed the predominance of geographic isolation to explain variation in allele frequencies at large spatial scale (>1,000 km), while larval dispersal was the major predictor at smaller spatial scale (<1,000 km). Our findings stress the importance of including spatial scales to understand the drivers of spatial genetic variation. We suggest that larval dispersal allows to maintain gene flows at small to intermediate scale, while at broad scale, genetic variation may be mostly shaped by adult mobility, demographic history, or multigenerational stepping-stone dispersal. These findings bring out important spatial scale considerations to account for in the design of a protected area network that would efficiently enhance protection and persistence capacity of marine species.
| S-EPMC6099820 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe 175-kDa erythrocyte binding antigen (EBA-175) of Plasmodium falciparum plays a crucial role in merozoite invasion into human erythrocytes. EBA-175 is believed to have been under diversifying selection; however, there have been no studies investigating the effect of dispersal of humans out of Africa on the genetic variation of EBA-175 in P. falciparum.MethodsThe PCR-direct sequencing was performed for a part of the eba-175 gene (regions II and III) using DNA samples obtained from Thai patients infected with P. falciparum. The divergence times for the P. falciparum eba-175 alleles were estimated assuming that P. falciparum/Plasmodium reichenowi divergence occurred 6 million years ago (MYA). To examine the possibility of diversifying selection, nonsynonymous and synonymous substitution rates for Plasmodium species were also estimated.ResultsA total of 32 eba-175 alleles were identified from 131 Thai P. falciparum isolates. Their estimated divergence time was 0.13-0.14 MYA, before the exodus of humans from Africa. A phylogenetic tree for a large sequence dataset of P. falciparum eba-175 alleles from across the world showed the presence of a basal Asian-specific cluster for all P. falciparum sequences. A markedly more nonsynonymous substitutions than synonymous substitutions in region II in P. falciparum was also detected, but not within Plasmodium species parasitizing African apes, suggesting that diversifying selection has acted specifically on P. falciparum eba-175.ConclusionsPlasmodium falciparum eba-175 genetic diversity appeared to increase following the exodus of Asian ancestors from Africa. Diversifying selection may have played an important role in the diversification of eba-175 allelic lineages. The present results suggest that the dispersals of humans out of Africa influenced significantly the molecular evolution of P. falciparum EBA-175.
| S-EPMC4522064 | biostudies-literature
Project description:A field isolate (Reo/SDWF /Pheasant/17608/20) of avian orthoreovirus (ARV), isolated from a flock of game-pheasants in Weifang, Shandong Province, was genetically characterized being a field variant or novel strain in our recent research studies in conducting whole genome sequencing by using Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technique on Illumina MiSeq platform. Among a total of 870,197 35-151-mer sequencing reads, 297,711 reads (34.21%) were identified as ARV sequences. The de novo assembly of the ARV reads resulted in generation of 10 ARV-related contigs with the average sequencing coverage from 1390× to 1977× according to 10 ARV genome segments. The complete genomes of this pheasant-origin ARV (Reo/SDWF /Pheasant/17608/20) were 23,495 bp in length and consist of 10 dsRNA segments ranged from 1192 bp (S4) to 3958 bp (L1) encoding 12 viral proteins. Sequence comparison between the SDWF17608 and classic ARV reference strains revealed that 58.1-100% nucleotide (nt) identities and 51.4-100% amino acid (aa) identities were in genome segment coding genes. The 10 RNA segments had conversed termini at 5' (5'-GCUUUU) and 3' (UCAUC-3') side, which were identical to the most published ARV strains. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that this pheasant ARV field variant was closely related with chicken ARV strains in 7 genome segment genes, but it possessed significant sequence divergence in M1, M3 and S2 segments. These findings suggested that this pheasant-origin field variant was a divergent ARV strain and was likely originated from reassortments between different chicken ARV strains.
| S-EPMC9678273 | biostudies-literature