Phylogeny of Greya (Lepidoptera: Prodoxidae), based on nucleotide sequence variation in mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I and II: congruence with morphological data

The phylogeny of Greya Busck (Lepidoptera: Prodoxidae) was inferred from nucleotide sequence variation across a 765-bp region in the cytochrome oxidase I and II genes of the mitochondrial genome. Most parsimonious relationships of 25 haplotypes from 16 Greya species and two outgroup genera (Tetragma and Prodoxus) showed substantial congruence with the species relationships indicated by morphological variation. Differences between mitochondrial and morphological trees were found primarily in the positions of two species, G. variabilis and G. pectinifera, and in the branching order of the three major species groups in the genus. Conflicts between the data sets were examined by comparing levels of homoplasy in characters supporting alternative hypotheses. The phylogeny of Greya species suggests that host-plant association at the family level and larval feeding mode are conservative characters. Transition/transversion ratios estimated by reconstruction of nucleotide substitutions on the phylogeny had a range of 2.0-9.3, when different subsets of the phylogeny were used. The decline of this ratio with the increase in maximum sequence divergence among taxa indicates that transitions are masked by transversions along deeper internodes or long branches of the phylogeny. Among transitions, substitutions of A-->G and T-->C outnumbered their reciprocal substitutions by 2-6 times, presumably because of the approximately 4:1 (77%) A+T-bias in nucleotide base composition. Of all transversions, 73%-80% were A<-->T substitutions, 85% of which occurred at third positions of codons; these estimates did not decrease with an increase in maximum sequence divergence of taxa included in the analysis. The high frequency of A<-->T substitutions is either a reflection or an explanation of the 92% A+T bias at third codon positions.      

Population density and genetic diversity are positively correlated in wild felids globally

Aim

Insights into the biological and evolutionary traits of species, and their ability to cope with global changes, can be gained by studying genetic diversity within species. A cornerstone hypothesis in evolutionary and conservation biology suggests that genetic diversity decreases with decreasing population size, however, population size is difficult to estimate in threatened species with large distribution ranges, and evidence for this is limited to few species. To address this gap, we tested this hypothesis across multiple closely related species at a global scale using population density which is a more accessible measure.

Location

Global.

Time Period

Contemporary.

Major Taxa Studied

Wild felids in their natural habitats.

Methods

We obtained data from published estimates of population density assessed via camera trap and within-population genetic diversity generated from microsatellite markers on 18 felid species across 41 countries from 354 studies. We propose a novel method to standardize population density estimates and to spatially join data using K-means clustering. Linear mixed-effect modelling was applied to account for confounding factors such as body mass, generation length and sample size used for the genetic estimates.

Results

We found a significant positive correlation between population density and genetic diversity, particularly observed heterozygosity and allelic richness. While the confounding factors did not affect the main results, long generation length and large sample size were significantly associated with high genetic diversity. Body mass had no effect on genetic diversity, likely because large-bodied species were over-represented in our data sets.

Main Conclusions

Our study emphasizes how recent demographic processes shape neutral genetic diversity in threatened and small populations where extinction vortex is a risk. Although caution is needed when interpreting the small population density effect in our findings, our methodological framework shows promising potential to identify which populations require actions to conserve maximal genetic variation.