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Exploring population genetic structure in three species of Lesser Antillean bats
Author(s) -
CARSTENS B. C.,
SULLIVAN J.,
DAVALOS L. M.,
LARSEN P. A.,
PEDERSEN S. C.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-294x.2004.02250.x
Subject(s) - biology , artibeus , coalescent theory , monophyly , population , zoology , lineage (genetic) , evolutionary biology , ecology , phylogenetic tree , genetics , gene , demography , clade , sociology
We explore population genetic structure in phyllostomid bats ( Ardops nichollsi , Brachyphylla cavernarum and Artibeus jamaicensis ) from the northern Lesser Antilles by investigating the degree to which island populations are genetically differentiated. Our hypothesis, that the island populations are genetically distinct because of a combination of founding events, limited migration and genetic drift exacerbated by catastrophe‐induced fluctuations in population size, is derived from a priori hypotheses erected in the literature. The first prediction of this hypothesis, that within each species island populations are monophyletic, was tested using a parametric bootstrap approach. Island monophyly could not be rejected in Ardops nichollsi ( P = 0.718), but could be rejected in B. cavernarum ( P < 0.001) and Artibeus jamaicensis ( P < 0.001). A second prediction, that molecular variance is partitioned among islands, was tested using an amova and was rejected in each species [ Ardops nichollsi ( P = 0.697); B. cavernarum ( P = 0.598); Artibeus jamaicensis ( P = 0.763)]. In B. cavernarum and Artibeus jamaicensis , the admixture in mitochondrial haplotypes from islands separated by > 100 km of ocean can be explained either by interisland migration or by incomplete lineage sorting of ancestral polymorphism in the source population. As an a posteriori test of lineage sorting, we used simulations of gene trees within a population tree to suggest that lineage sorting is an unlikely explanation for the observed pattern of nonmonophyly in Artibeus jamaicensis ( P W < 0.01; P SE = 0.04), but cannot be rejected in B. cavernarum ( P W = 0.81; P SE = 0.79). A conservative interpretation of the molecular data is that island populations of Artibeus jamaicensis , although isolated geographically, are not isolated genetically.