Redpath Museum, McGill University 859 Sherbrooke Street W., Montréal, Québec, H3A 0C4, Canada.
Ecol Evol. 2013 Jul;3(7):2075-88. doi: 10.1002/ece3.620. Epub 2013 Jun 3.
The white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) has expanded its northern limit into southern Québec over the last few decades. P. leucopus is a great disperser and colonizer and is of particular interest because it is considered a primary reservoir for the spirochete bacterium that causes Lyme disease. There is no current information on the gene flow between mouse populations on the mountains and forest fragments found scattered throughout the Montérégie region in southern Québec, and whether various landscape barriers have an effect on their dispersal. We conducted a population genetics analysis on eleven P. leucopus populations using eleven microsatellite markers and showed that isolation by distance was weak, yet barriers were effective. The agricultural matrix had the least effect on gene flow, whereas highways and main rivers were effective barriers. The abundance of ticks collected from mice varied within the study area. Both ticks and mice were screened for the presence of the spirochete bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, and we predicted areas of greater risk for Lyme disease. Merging our results with ongoing Lyme disease surveillance programs will help determine the future threat of this disease in Québec, and will contribute toward disease prevention and management strategies throughout fragmented landscapes in southern Canada.
过去几十年里，白足鼠（Peromyscus leucopus）的分布范围已向北扩展到魁北克省南部。白足鼠是一种出色的扩散者和殖民者，特别值得关注，因为它被认为是引起莱姆病的螺旋体细菌的主要宿主。目前，尚无关于分布在魁北克省南部蒙特利尔地区分散的山脉和森林碎片上的鼠群之间基因流动的信息，也不知道各种景观障碍是否会影响它们的扩散。我们使用 11 个微卫星标记对白足鼠的 11 个种群进行了种群遗传学分析，结果表明尽管距离隔离较弱，但障碍仍然有效。农业基质对基因流动的影响最小，而高速公路和主要河流则是有效的障碍。从老鼠身上采集的蜱的数量在研究区域内有所不同。我们对蜱和老鼠进行了是否携带螺旋体细菌 Borrelia burgdorferi 的筛查，并预测了莱姆病的高风险区域。将我们的结果与正在进行的莱姆病监测计划相结合，将有助于确定该疾病在魁北克的未来威胁，并有助于在加拿大南部的破碎景观中制定疾病预防和管理策略。
