scholarly journals Desert Tortoises in the Genomic Age: Population Genetics and the Landscape

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Bradley Shaffer ◽  
Evan McCartney-Melstad ◽  
Peter L. Ralph ◽  
Gideon Bradburd ◽  
Erik Lundgren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Genetic Resistance ◽  
Habitat Modeling ◽  
Desert Tortoise ◽  
Conservation Genomics ◽  
California Department ◽  
Resistance Distance ◽  
Tissue Samples ◽  
Continuous Space ◽  
Landscape Genomics

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) provided research funds to study the conservation genomics and landscape genomics of the Mojave desert tortoise, Gopherus agassizii, in response to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP). To do this, we consolidated tissue samples of the desert tortoise from across the species range within California and southern Nevada, generated a DNA dataset consisting of full genomes of 270 tortoises, and analyzed the way in which the environment of the desert tortoise has determined modern patterns of relatedness and genetic diversity across the landscape. Here we present the implications of these results for the conservation and landscape genomics of the desert tortoise. Our work strongly indicates that several well-defined genetic groups exist within the species, including a primary north-south genetic discontinuity at the Ivanpah Valley and another separating western from eastern Mojave samples. We also use existing desert tortoise habitat modeling data with a novel extension of genetic "resistance distance" using geographic maps of continuous space to predict the relative impacts of five proposed development alternatives within the DRECP and rank them with respect to their likely impacts on desert tortoise gene flow and connectivity in the Mojave. Finally, we analyzed the impacts of each of the 214 distinct proposed development area "chunks", derived from the proposed development polygons, and ranked each chunk in terms of its range-wide impacts on desert tortoise gene flow.

scholarly journals Elucidating the drivers of genetic differentiation in Malaysian torrent frogs (Anura: Ranidae: Amolops): a landscape genomics approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 190 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kin Onn Chan ◽  
Rafe M Brown
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Gene Flow ◽  
Genetic Differentiation ◽  
Isolation By Distance ◽  
Variance Partitioning ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
Landscape Genomics ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Environmental Attributes

Abstract The interplay between environmental attributes and evolutionary processes can provide valuable insights into how biodiversity is generated, partitioned and distributed. This study investigates the role of spatial, environmental and historical factors that could potentially drive diversification and shape genetic variation in Malaysian torrent frogs. Torrent frogs are ecologically conserved, and we hypothesize that this could impose tight constraints on dispersal routes, gene flow and consequently genetic structure. Moreover, levels of gene flow were shown to vary among populations from separate mountain ranges, indicating that genetic differentiation could be influenced by landscape features. Using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms, in conjunction with landscape variables derived from Geographic Information Systems, we performed distance-based redundancy analyses and variance partitioning to disentangle the effects of isolation-by-distance (IBD), isolation-by-resistance (IBR) and isolation-by-colonization (IBC). Our results demonstrated that IBR contributed minimally to genetic variation. Intraspecific population structure can be largely attributed to IBD, whereas interspecific diversification was primarily driven by IBC. We also detected two distinct population bottlenecks, indicating that speciation events were likely driven by vicariance or founder events.

Geographical variation, population structure and gene flow between populations of Chrysophtharta agricola (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), a pest of Australian eucalypt plantations

2003 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.F. Nahrung ◽  
G.R. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Natural Enemies ◽  
Chemical Control ◽  
Genetic Resistance ◽  
Allelic Diversity ◽  
Native Forest ◽  
Pest Species ◽  
Eucalypt Plantations ◽  
Pest Outbreaks ◽  
High Allelic Diversity

AbstractChrysophtharta agricola (Chapuis) is a pest of commercial eucalypt plantations in Tasmania and Victoria. Vagility of pest populations may result in difficulty predicting temporal and spatial pest outbreaks, and influence genetic resistance to chemical control. Gene flow in this pest species was estimated to assess predicability of attack, the potential efficacy of natural enemies, and the likelihood of resistance build-up. Ten geographic populations of C. agricola (six from Tasmania, one from the Australian Capital Territory, one from New South Wales and two from Victoria) were examined for genetic variation and gene flow using cellulose acetate allozyme electrophoresis. Six enzyme systems (PGI, PGD, PGM, IDH, HEX and MPI) were consistently polymorphic and scorable and were used to quantify estimated gene flow between populations. FST values and analysis of molecular variance indicated that gene flow was restricted between populations. Chrysophtharta agricola exhibited high levels of heterozygosity, probably because of high allelic diversity, and because all loci examined were polymorphic. The southern-most population was the most genetically different to other Tasmanian populations, and may also have been the most recently colonized. Limited gene flow implies that outbreaks of C. agricola should be spatially predictable and populations susceptible to control by natural enemies. Our results also imply that genetic resistance to chemical control may occur under frequent application of insecticide. However, testing population movement between plantations and native forest also needs to be conducted to assess gene flow between forest types.

scholarly journals Landscape genomics of an obligate mutualism: discordant population structures between a leafcutter-ant and its fungal cultivars

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad C. Smith ◽  
Jesse N. Weber ◽  
Alexander S. Mikheyev ◽  
Flavio Roces ◽  
Martin Bollazzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Gene Flow ◽  
Genetic Structure ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Genotyping By Sequencing ◽  
Range Limit ◽  
Range Margin ◽  
Landscape Genomics ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Obligate Mutualism

AbstractTo explore landscape genomics at the range limit of an obligate mutualism, we used genotyping-by-sequencing (ddRADseq) to quantify population structure and the effect of hostsymbiont interactions between the northernmost fungus-farming leafcutter ant Atta texana and its two main types of cultivated fungus. At local scales, genome-wide differentiation between ants associated with either of the two fungal types is greater than the differentiation associated with the abiotic factors temperature and precipitation, suggesting that specific ant-fungus genome-genome combinations may have been favored by selection. For the ant hosts, we found a broad cline of genetic structure across the range, and a reduction of genetic diversity along the axis of range expansion towards the range margin. In contrast, genetic structure was patchy in the cultivated fungi, with no consistent reduction of fungal genetic diversity at the range margins. This discordance in population-genetic structure between ant hosts and fungal symbionts is surprising because the ant farmers co-disperse with their vertically-transmitted fungal symbionts, but apparently the fungi disperse occasionally also through between-nest horizontal transfer or other unknown dispersal mechanisms. The discordance in populationgenetic structure indicates that genetic drift and gene flow differ in magnitude between each partner in this leafcutter mutualism. Together, these findings imply that variation in the strength of drift and gene flow experienced by each mutualistic partner affects adaptation to environmental stress at the range margin, and genome-genome interactions between host and symbiont influences adaptive genetic differentiation of the host during range evolution in this obligate mutualism.

scholarly journals Landscape Genomics of a Widely Distributed Snake, Dolichophis caspius (Gmelin, 1789) across Eastern Europe and Western Asia

Genes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1218
Author(s):  
Sarita Mahtani-Williams ◽  
William Fulton ◽  
Amelie Desvars-Larrive ◽  
Sara Lado ◽  
Jean Pierre Elbers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Genomic Analysis ◽  
Balkan Peninsula ◽  
Danube River ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
Landscape Genomics ◽  
Western Asia ◽  
Annual Range ◽  
Average Gene

Across the distribution of the Caspian whipsnake (Dolichophis caspius), populations have become increasingly disconnected due to habitat alteration. To understand population dynamics and this widespread but locally endangered snake’s adaptive potential, we investigated population structure, admixture, and effective migration patterns. We took a landscape-genomic approach to identify selected genotypes associated with environmental variables relevant to D. caspius. With double-digest restriction-site associated DNA (ddRAD) sequencing of 53 samples resulting in 17,518 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we identified 8 clusters within D. caspius reflecting complex evolutionary patterns of the species. Estimated Effective Migration Surfaces (EEMS) revealed higher-than-average gene flow in most of the Balkan Peninsula and lower-than-average gene flow along the middle section of the Danube River. Landscape genomic analysis identified 751 selected genotypes correlated with 7 climatic variables. Isothermality correlated with the highest number of selected genotypes (478) located in 41 genes, followed by annual range (127) and annual mean temperature (87). We conclude that environmental variables, especially the day-to-night temperature oscillation in comparison to the summer-to-winter oscillation, may have an important role in the distribution and adaptation of D. caspius.

scholarly journals Urban landscape genomics identifies fine-scale gene flow patterns in an avian invasive

Heredity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
GW Low ◽  
B Chattopadhyay ◽  
KM Garg ◽  
M Irestedt ◽  
PGP Ericson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Flow Patterns ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Landscape Genomics

scholarly journals Landscape limits gene flow and drives population structure in Agassiz’s desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii)

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Sánchez-Ramírez ◽  
Yessica Rico ◽  
Kristin H. Berry ◽  
Taylor Edwards ◽  
Alice E. Karl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
Gene Flow ◽  
Gopherus Agassizii ◽  
Desert Tortoise

scholarly journals Using empirical datasets to quantify uncertainty in inferences of landscape genetic resistance due to variation of individual-based genetic distance metrics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joscha Beninde ◽  
Alain C. Frantz
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Genetic Distance ◽  
Genetic Resistance ◽  
List Type ◽  
Distance Metrics ◽  
Factorial Correspondence Analysis ◽  
Landscape Resistance ◽  
Landscape Factors ◽  
Landscape Genetic ◽  
The Impact

AbstractEstimates of gene flow are commonly based on inferences of landscape resistance in ecological and evolutionary research and they frequently inform decision-making processes in conservation management. It is therefore imperative that inferences of a landscape factors relevance and its resistance are robust across approaches and reflect real-world gene flow instead of methodological artefacts. Here, we tested the impact of 160 different individual-based pairwise genetic metrics on consistency of landscape genetic inferences.We used three empirical datasets that adopted individual-based sampling schemes and varied in scale (35-25,000 km2) and total number of samples (184-790) and comprise the wild boar, Sus scrofa, the red fox, Vulpes vulpes and the common wall lizard, Podarcis muralis. We made use of a machine-learning algorithm implemented in ResistanceGA to optimally fit resistances of landscape factors to genetic distance metrics and ranked their importance. Employed for nine landscape factors this resulted in 4,320 unique combinations of dataset, landscape factor and genetic distance metric, which provides the basis for quantifying uncertainty in inferences of landscape resistance.Our results demonstrate that there are clear differences in Akaike information criteria (AICc)-based model support and marginal R2-based model fit between different genetic distance metrics. Metrics based on between 1-10 axes of eigenvector-based multivariate analyses (Factorial correspondence analysis, FCA; Principal component analysis, PCA) outperformed more widely used metrics, including the proportion of shared alleles (DPS), with AICc and marginal R2 values often an order of magnitude greater in the former. Across datasets, inferences of the directionality of a landscape factors influence on gene flow, e.g. facilitating or impeding it, changed across different genetic distance metrics. The directionality of the inferred resistance was largely consistent when considering metrics based on between 1-10 FCA/PCA axes.Inferences of landscape genetic resistance need to be corroborated using calculations of multiple individual-based pairwise genetic distance metrics. Our results call for the adoption of eigenvector-based quantifications of pairwise genetic distances. Specifically, a preliminary step of analysis should be incorporated, which explores model ranks across genetic distance metrics derived from FCA and PCA, and, contrary to findings of a simulation study, we demonstrate that it suffices to quantify these distances spanning the first ten axes only.

scholarly journals Whole genome sequences from non-invasively collected caribou faecal samples

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca S. Taylor ◽  
Micheline Manseau ◽  
Bridget Redquest ◽  
Sonesinh Keobouasone ◽  
Patrick Gagné ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Demographic History ◽  
Primate Species ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Faecal Dna ◽  
Conservation Genomics ◽  
High Coverage ◽  
Tissue Samples ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Faecal Samples ◽  
Whole Genomes

AbstractConservation genomics is an important tool to manage threatened species under current biodiversity loss. Recent advances in sequencing technology mean that we can now use whole genomes to investigate demographic history, local adaptation, inbreeding, and more in unprecedented detail. However, for many rare and elusive species only non-invasive samples such as faeces can be obtained, making it difficult to take advantage of whole genome data. We present a method to extract DNA from the mucosal layer of faecal samples to re-sequence high coverage whole genomes using standard laboratory techniques. We use wild collected faecal pellets collected from caribou (Rangifer tarandus), a species undergoing declines in many parts of its range in Canada and subject to comprehensive conservation and population monitoring measures. We compare four faecal genomes to two tissue genomes sequenced in the same run. Quality metrics were similar between faecal and tissue samples with the main difference being the alignment success of raw reads to the reference genome due to differences in low quality and endogenous DNA content, affecting overall coverage. One of our faecal genomes was only re-sequenced at low coverage (1.6 ×), however the other three obtained between 7 and 15 ×, compared to 19 and 25 × for the tissue samples. We successfully re-sequenced high-quality whole genomes from faecal DNA and are one of the first to obtain genome-wide data from wildlife faecal DNA in a non-primate species. Our work represents an important advancement for non-invasive conservation genomics.

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