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Evolutionary history of a dispersal‐associated locus across sympatric and allopatric divergent populations of a wing‐polymorphic beetle across A tlantic E urope
Author(s) -
Van Belleghem Steven M.,
Roelofs Dick,
Hendrickx Frederik
Publication year - 2015
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/mec.13031
Subject(s) - biology , allopatric speciation , sympatric speciation , coalescent theory , locus (genetics) , biological dispersal , evolutionary biology , haplotype , allele , genetics , population , phylogenetics , gene , demography , sociology
Studying the evolutionary history of trait divergence, in particular those related to dispersal capacity, is of major interest for the process of local adaptation and metapopulation dynamics. Here, we reconstruct the evolution of different alleles at the nuclear‐encoded mitochondrial NADP + ‐dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase ( mtIdh ) locus of the ground beetle Pogonus chalceus that are differentially and repeatedly selected in short‐ and long‐winged populations in response to different hydrological regimes at both allopatric and sympatric scales along the Atlantic European coasts. We sequenced 2788 bp of the mtIdh locus spanning a ~7‐kb genome region and compared its variation with that of two supposedly neutral genes. mtIdh sequences show (i) monophyletic clustering of the short‐winged associated mt IDH ‐ DE haplotypes within the long‐winged associated mt IDH ‐ AB haplotypes, (ii) a more than tenfold lower haplotype diversity associated with the mt IDH ‐ DE alleles compared to the mt IDH ‐ AB alleles and (iii) a high number of fixed nucleotide differences between both mt IDH haplotype clusters. Coalescent simulations suggest that this observed sequence variation in the mtIdh locus is most consistent with a singular origin in a partially isolated subpopulation, followed by a relatively recent spread of the mt IDH ‐ DE allele in short‐winged populations along the Atlantic coast. These results demonstrate that even traits associated with decreased dispersal capacity can rapidly spread and that reuse of adaptive alleles plays an important role in the adaptive potential within this sympatric mosaic of P. chalceus populations.