Weak population structure in the ant Formica fusca

PeerJ

article

Helena Johansson¹  Perttu Seppä¹  Heikki Helanterä¹  Kalevi Trontti¹  Liselotte Sundström¹ 

[1] Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions, Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, University of Helsinki;Tvärminne Research Station, University of Helsinki

关键词: Sex-biased dispersal;    Formica fusca;    Panmixia;    Social insect;    Microsatellite;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.5024

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Dispersal is a fundamental trait of a species’ biology. High dispersal results in weakly structured or even panmictic populations over large areas, whereas weak dispersal enables population differentiation and strong spatial structuring. We report on the genetic population structure in the polygyne ant Formica fusca and the relative contribution of the dispersing males and females to this. We sampled 12 localities across a ∼35 km2 study area in Finland and generated mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotype data and microsatellite data. First, we assessed queen dispersal by estimating population differentiation from mtDNA haplotype data. Second, we analysed nuclear DNA microsatellite data to determine overall population genetic substructure in the study area with principal components analysis, Bayesian clustering, hierarchical F statistics and testing for evidence of isolation-by-distance. Third, we directly compared genetic differentiation estimates from maternally inherited mtDNA and bi-parentally inherited DNA microsatellites to test for sex-bias in dispersal. Our results showed no significant spatial structure or isolation by distance in neither mtDNA nor DNA microsatellite data, suggesting high dispersal of both sexes across the study area. However, mitochondrial differentiation was weaker (Fst-mt = 0.0047) than nuclear differentiation (Fst-nuc = 0.027), which translates into a sixfold larger female migration rate compared to that of males. We conclude that the weak population substructure reflects high dispersal in both sexes, and it is consistent with F. fusca as a pioneer species exploiting unstable habitats in successional boreal forests.

【 授权许可】

CC BY