Genetic diversity,population structure and gene flow in native populations of a proposed biocontrol agent (Cornops aquaticum) |
| |
Authors: | EDWARD G BREDE JOACHIM ADIS PAULA SCHNEIDER |
| |
Institution: | 1. Max‐Planck‐Institute for Limnology, Tropical Ecology Working Group, Postfach 165, 24302 Pl?n, Germany;2. Departamento de Genética, Campus Universitário do Guamá/Universidade Federal do Pará.?Rua Augusto Correa, 66.075‐110, Belém, Pará, Brazil |
| |
Abstract: | The semiaquatic grasshopper Cornops aquaticum is native to South America, with a distribution as far south as the Argentinean pampas and as far north as the Gulf of Mexico. This grasshopper is being proposed as a form of biological control agent for the invasive aquatic macrophyte (Eichhornia crassipes) in South Africa. The results of a molecular study (six microsatellite loci) conducted on 11 C. aquaticum populations is presented. Unlike in contiguous mainland South American populations, we found genetic diversity to be lowest in a South African quarantine population, with reduced values in two other isolated populations from South America. In addition, Fst/Rst/analysis of molecular variance and Bayesian cluster analysis suggested high levels of connectivity between mainland populations. The implications of these findings and their relationship to those of a recent morphological study suggest that the suitability of C. aquaticum as a form of biocontrol might be unpredictable at best. © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 95 , 666–676. |
| |
Keywords: | bottleneck founder non‐native alien Orthoptera |
|
|