TY - JOUR
T1 - Contrasting genetic structure of rear edge and continuous range populations of a parasitic butterfly infected by Wolbachia
AU - Patricelli, Dario
AU - Sielezniew, Marcin
AU - Ponikwicka-Tyszko, Donata
AU - Ratkiewicz, Mirosław
AU - Bonelli, Simona
AU - Barbero, Francesca
AU - Witek, Magdalena
AU - Bus̈, Magdalena M.
AU - Rutkowski, Robert
AU - Balletto, Emilio
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the Italian Ministry for the Environment, the Polish Ministry of the Environment and the ‘Parco del Cilento e Vallo di Diano’, which issued the relevant permissions for our studies. We thank Dr. Gabriele Fiumi, Prof. Giuseppe Manganelli and Dr. Guido Volpe for Italian population selections as well as Maciej Matosiuk for the Wolbachia screening analysis. This research was funded within the project CLIMIT (Climate Change Impacts on Insects and their Mitigation; that is funded by DLR-BMBF (Germany), NERC and DEFRA (UK), ANR (France), Formas (Sweden), and Swedish EPA (Sweden) through the FP6 BiodivERsA Eranet. The Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR) multitaxa approach to study the impact of climate change on the biodiversity of Italian ecosystems project and the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (grant no. 2 P04G 024 30) and BST-108 (University of Bialystok) also provided funding for this research. Cover image provided by Marcin Sielezniew.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 Patricelli et al.; Licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Background: Climatic oscillations are among the long-term factors shaping the molecular features of animals and plants and it is generally supposed that the rear edges (i.e., the low-latitude limits of distribution of any given specialised species) situated closer to glacial refugia are vital long-term stores of genetic diversity. In the present study, we compared the genetic structure of several populations of an endangered and obligate myrmecophilous butterfly (Maculinea arion) from two distinct and geographically distant parts of its European distribution (i.e., Italy and Poland), which fully represent the ecological and morphological variation occurring across the continent. Results: We sequenced the COI mitochondrial DNA gene (the 'barcoding gene') and the EF-1α nuclear gene and found substantial genetic differentiation among M. arion Italian populations in both markers. Eleven mtDNA haplotypes were present in Italy. In contrast, almost no mtDNA polymorphisms was found in the Polish M. arion populations, where genetic differentiation at the nuclear gene was low to moderate. Interestingly, the within-population diversity levels in the EF-1α gene observed in Italy and in Poland were comparable. The genetic data did not support any subspecies divisions or any ecological specialisations. All of the populations studied were infected with a single strain of Wolbachia and our screening suggested 100% prevalence of the bacterium. Conclusions: Differences in the genetic structure of M. arion observed in Italy and in Poland may be explained by the rear edge theory. Although we were not able to pinpoint any specific evolutionary significant units, we suggest that the Italian peninsula should be considered as a region of special conservation concern and one that is important for maintaining the genetic diversity of M. arion in Europe. The observed pattern of mtDNA differentiation among the populations could not be explained by an endosymbiotic infection.
AB - Background: Climatic oscillations are among the long-term factors shaping the molecular features of animals and plants and it is generally supposed that the rear edges (i.e., the low-latitude limits of distribution of any given specialised species) situated closer to glacial refugia are vital long-term stores of genetic diversity. In the present study, we compared the genetic structure of several populations of an endangered and obligate myrmecophilous butterfly (Maculinea arion) from two distinct and geographically distant parts of its European distribution (i.e., Italy and Poland), which fully represent the ecological and morphological variation occurring across the continent. Results: We sequenced the COI mitochondrial DNA gene (the 'barcoding gene') and the EF-1α nuclear gene and found substantial genetic differentiation among M. arion Italian populations in both markers. Eleven mtDNA haplotypes were present in Italy. In contrast, almost no mtDNA polymorphisms was found in the Polish M. arion populations, where genetic differentiation at the nuclear gene was low to moderate. Interestingly, the within-population diversity levels in the EF-1α gene observed in Italy and in Poland were comparable. The genetic data did not support any subspecies divisions or any ecological specialisations. All of the populations studied were infected with a single strain of Wolbachia and our screening suggested 100% prevalence of the bacterium. Conclusions: Differences in the genetic structure of M. arion observed in Italy and in Poland may be explained by the rear edge theory. Although we were not able to pinpoint any specific evolutionary significant units, we suggest that the Italian peninsula should be considered as a region of special conservation concern and one that is important for maintaining the genetic diversity of M. arion in Europe. The observed pattern of mtDNA differentiation among the populations could not be explained by an endosymbiotic infection.
KW - COI
KW - EF-1α
KW - Maculinea arion
KW - Rear edge
KW - Wolbachia
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84872329199&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/1471-2148-13-14
DO - 10.1186/1471-2148-13-14
M3 - Article
C2 - 23331872
AN - SCOPUS:84872329199
SN - 1471-2148
VL - 13
JO - BMC Evolutionary Biology
JF - BMC Evolutionary Biology
IS - 1
M1 - 14
ER -