Examining the factors that influence contemporary genetic patterns is important given the alarming rate at which natural environments are changing. In particular habitat fragmentation and climate change are expected to influence the distribution and diversity of natural populations. In this study we used both mitochondrial control region (mtDNA) and microsatellite data to answer the following questions about genetic diversity and divergence in mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli) a resident bird species in western North America: (1) Do populations exhibit similar levels of genetic diversity across the range? (2) What is the genetic affinity of western populations in Oregon and Washington? (3) Do genetic patterns exhibit isolation by distance, or are genetic patterns more heavily influenced by habitat discontinuity? We tested the effects of isolation by distance and habitat distribution on genetic structure by analyzing 266 samples from 17 sites across western Canada and the United States. We found a near significant relationship between genetic diversity and latitude, however, our results indicate that overall, latitude is not a strong predictor of genetic diversity. Our analyses of populations in Oregon and Washington revealed a mismatch between patterns detected with mtDNA and microsatellite data. In particular, Washington clustered with the Coast Range/Cascades/Rocky Mountain mtDNA group, but with populations in southern Oregon/California based on microsatellite data. These results suggest the presence of a contact zone in Washington between the two mtDNA clades Coast Range/Cascades/Rocky Mountain and southern Oregon/California clades. Finally, our study revealed a greater effect of isolation by distance than isolation by habitat for both mtDNA and microsatellite data. Overall the isolation by distance signal was greater for mtDNA than microsatellite patterns. The greater signal of isolation by distance on mtDNA patterns likely reflects the strong effects of Pleistocene glaciations in shaping genetic patterns in western North America.
Pubmed ID: 30087363 RIS Download
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Software integrated tool for conducting automatic and manual sequence alignment, inferring phylogenetic trees, mining web based databases, estimating rates of molecular evolution, and testing evolutionary hypotheses. Used for comparative analysis of DNA and protein sequences to infer molecular evolutionary patterns of genes, genomes, and species over time. MEGA version 4 expands on existing facilities for editing DNA sequence data from autosequencers, mining Web-databases, performing automatic and manual sequence alignment, analyzing sequence alignments to estimate evolutionary distances, inferring phylogenetic trees, and testing evolutionary hypotheses. MEGA version 6 enables inference of timetrees, as it implements RelTime method for estimating divergence times for all branching points in phylogeny.
View all literature mentionsA software package for the analysis of nucleotide polymorphism from aligned DNA sequence data. DnaSP can estimate several measures of DNA sequence variation within and between populations (in noncoding, synonymous or nonsynonymous sites, or in various sorts of codon positions), as well as linkage disequilibrium, recombination, gene flow and gene conversion parameters. DnaSP can also carry out several tests of neutrality: Hudson, Kreitman and Aguad (1987), Tajima (1989), McDonald and Kreitman (1991), Fu and Li (1993), and Fu (1997) tests. Additionally, DnaSP can estimate the confidence intervals of some test-statistics by the coalescent. The results of the analyses are displayed on tabular and graphic form.
View all literature mentionsPopulation genetic data analysis software package. Used to perform exact Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium test. Used for population differentiation and for genotypic disequilibrium among pairs of loci. Computes estimates of F-statistics, null allele frequencies, allele size-based statistics for microsatellites, etc. and performs analyses of isolation by distance from pairwise comparisons of individuals or population samples.
View all literature mentionsNIH genetic sequence database that provides annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences for almost 280 000 formally described species (Jan 2014) .These sequences are obtained primarily through submissions from individual laboratories and batch submissions from large-scale sequencing projects, including whole-genome shotgun (WGS) and environmental sampling projects. Most submissions are made using web-based BankIt or standalone Sequin programs, and GenBank staff assigns accession numbers upon data receipt. It is part of International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration and daily data exchange with European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) and DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) ensures worldwide coverage. GenBank is accessible through NCBI Entrez retrieval system, which integrates data from major DNA and protein sequence databases along with taxonomy, genome, mapping, protein structure and domain information, and biomedical journal literature via PubMed. BLAST provides sequence similarity searches of GenBank and other sequence databases. Complete bimonthly releases and daily updates of GenBank database are available by FTP.
View all literature mentionsAn exploratory population genetics software environment able to handle large samples of molecular data (RFLPs, DNA sequences, microsatellites), while retaining the capacity of analyzing conventional genetic data (standard multi-locus data or mere allele frequency data). (entry from Genetic Analysis Software)
View all literature mentionsOrdination methods, diversity analysis and other functions for community and vegetation ecologists.
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