Effect of Climatic Conditions and Land Cover on Genetic Structure and Diversity of Eunica tatila (Lepidoptera) in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Abstract

Fragmentation is the third cause of the biodiversity declination. Population genetic studies using Lepidoptera as the model species in the context of loss of habitat are scarce, particularly for tropical areas. We chose a widespread butterfly from Mexico as the model species to explore how changes of habitat characteristics (undisturbed forest, anthropogenic disturbances, and coastal areas), and climatic conditions affect genetic diversity and population structure. The Nymphalidae Eunica tatila is a common species in the Yucatan Peninsula considered to be a bio-indicator of undisturbed tropical forest, with migratory potential and a possible sex-biased dispersal. We genotyped 323 individuals collected in eight undisturbed areas, using four Inter Simple Sequence Repeats primers. Results show a high genetic diversity and no population structure. Temperature and shrub density present a positive and significant relationship with polymorphism values. Furthermore, our results show the positive effect of surrounding forest habitat on genetic diversity, confirming that E. tatila is a bio-indicator of undisturbed tropical forest. We found evidence of sex-biased dispersal. This paper represents one of the few studies on population genetics of tropical butterfly in a fragmented landscape and is, therefore, an important step in understanding the impact of habitat fragmentation on the risk of a butterflies’ decline.

Mariposas bioindicadoras ecológicas en México. Artículo de revisión

“…En el Anexo 1 se presenta la lista con 179 especies de mariposas bioindicadoras en México, en 16 estudios identifican especies indicadoras de hábitats con disturbio y conservados con base en análisis estadísticos, realizados en los estados de Campeche (Pozo & Galindo-Leal, 2006;Vester et al, 2007;Pozo et al, 2014;Cavanzón-Medrano et al, 2018), Chiapas (Molina-Martínez & León-Cortés, 2006Balam-Ballote & León-Cortés, 2010;León-Cortés et al, 2019), Morelos (Legal et al, 2020), Nuevo León (Friesen, 2019), Quintana Roo, Yucatán (Maya-Martínez et al, 2009, San Luis Potosí (Rodríguez, 2021), Tabasco (González-Valdivia et al, 2011b;González-Valdivia et al, 2016), Tamaulipas (Meléndez-Jaramillo et al, 2017;Meléndez-Jaramillo et al, 2018) y Veracruz (Raguso & Llorente-Bousquets, 1990). El 65 % de las especies registran alguna información sobre su planta huésped, fitofagia, voltinismo, grado de especialización, tipo de hábitat y ubicación geográfica estatal.…”

Genetic Diversity of Campomanesia adamantium and Its Correlation with Land Use and Land Cover

“…PCA analysis and Pearson's correlation (r and p-values) [34] was carried out to determine the relationship between the conditions of land use and land cover (categories in percentage of agriculture, building areas, water bodies, forest fragments, exposed soil, pastureland, and secondary vegetation) and the parameters of genetic diversity, H E , H O , and F IS . Correlations were made between each category and parameters of diversity in the two assessed years with the R software, using the Vegan [35] and Hmisc [36] packages.…”

Assessment of Anthropogenic Impacts on the Genetic Diversity of Phragmites australis in Small-River Habitats

“…Here, we employed intersimple sequence repeats (ISSRs), dominant molecular markers that are highly polymorphic, sufficiently reliable, inexpensive and, as some other dominant markers, equally informative as SSRs in the analysis of polyploid genotypes [56]. The application of the ISSR technique enabled the investigation of DNA polymorphisms between adjacent, inverted microsatellite loci, located at suitable distances for PCR amplification, and produced reproducible multilocus band patterns [38,[57][58][59][60][61][62][63]. In addition, these markers allowed us to assess a larger number of loci than the 10 SSR loci commonly used for P. australis [64].…”