Little and large: body size and genetic clines in a New Zealand gecko (Woodworthia maculata) along a coastal transect

Ecology and Evolution

Josephine Fitness²  Rodney A. Hitchmough¹ 

[1] Department of Conservation, Wellington, New Zealand;Ecology, Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

关键词: Cline;    gene flow;    Hoplodactylus;    hybrid fitness;    hybrid zone;    mitochondria;    nuclear;   

DOI  :  10.1002/ece3.64

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

Clinal variation can result from primary differentiation or secondary contact and determining which of these two processes is responsible for the existence of a cline is not a trivial problem. Samples from a coastal transect of New Zealand geckos (Woodworthia maculata) identified for the first time a body size cline 7–10 km wide. The larger geckos are almost twice the mass of the small adult geckos. Clines in allele and haplotype frequency were found at two of the four genetic loci examined. Estimated width of the morphological cline was concordant with neither the narrower mtDNA cline (3–7 m) nor the wider nuclear cline (RAG-2; 34–42 km), and cline centers were not coincident. Although the body size cline is narrow compared to the entire range of the species, it is 2–3 orders of magnitude greater than estimates of dispersal distance per generation for these geckos. No evidence of assortative mating, nor of hybrid disadvantage was identified, thus there is little evidence to infer that endogenous selection is maintaining a hybrid zone. We cannot distinguish secondary contact from primary origin of this body size cline but conclude that secondary contact is likely due to the occurrence of mtDNA haplotypes from three distinct clades within the coastal transect and the presence of two frequency clines within this region.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC   
© 2011 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.