Speer Kelly A, Luetke Eli, Bush Emily, Sheth Bhavya, Gerace Allie, Quicksall Zachary, Miyamoto Michael, Dick Carl W, Dittmar Katharina, Albury Nancy, Reed David L
1 Richard Gilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West, New York, New York 10024.
2 Department of Biology, University of Florida, 876 Newell Drive, Gainesville, Florida 32611.
J Parasitol. 2019 Aug;105(4):555-566.
Dispersal influences the evolution and adaptation of organisms, but it can be difficult to detect. Host-specific parasites provide information about the dispersal of their hosts and may be valuable for examining host dispersal that does not result in gene flow or that has low signals of gene flow. We examined the population connectivity of the buffy flower bat, (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae), and its associated obligate ectoparasite, (Diptera: Streblidae), across a narrow oceanic channel in The Bahamas that has previously been implicated as a barrier to dispersal in bats. Due to the horizontal transmission of , we were able to test the hypothesis that bats are dispersing across this channel, but this dispersal does not result in gene flow, occurs rarely, or started occurring recently. We developed novel microsatellite markers for the family Streblidae in combination with previously developed markers for bats to genotype individuals from 4 islands in The Bahamas. We provide evidence for a single population of the host, , but 2 populations of its bat flies, potentially indicating a recent reduction of gene flow in , rare dispersal, or infrequent transportation of bat flies with their hosts. Despite high population differentiation in bat flies indicated by microsatellites, mitochondrial DNA shows no polymorphism, suggesting that bacterial reproductive parasites may be contributing to mitochondrial DNA sweeps. Parasites, including bat flies, provide independent information about their hosts and can be used to test hypotheses of host dispersal that may be difficult to assess using host genetics alone.
扩散影响着生物的进化与适应，但可能难以察觉。宿主特异性寄生虫提供了有关其宿主扩散的信息，对于研究不会导致基因流动或基因流动信号较弱的宿主扩散可能具有重要价值。我们研究了巴哈马一种棕花蝠（翼手目：叶口蝠科）及其相关专性体外寄生虫（双翅目：蝠蝇科）在一条狭窄海洋通道两侧的种群连通性，该通道此前被认为是蝙蝠扩散的一个障碍。由于这种寄生虫的水平传播，我们能够检验这样一个假设：蝙蝠正在扩散穿过这个通道，但这种扩散不会导致基因流动，扩散很少发生，或者是最近才开始发生的。我们为蝠蝇科开发了新的微卫星标记，并结合之前为蝙蝠开发的标记，对来自巴哈马4个岛屿的个体进行基因分型。我们提供的证据表明，宿主棕花蝠为单一种群，但其蝠蝇有两个种群，这可能表明该寄生虫近期基因流动减少、扩散罕见，或者其与宿主的传播不频繁。尽管微卫星显示蝠蝇种群分化程度很高，但其线粒体DNA没有多态性，这表明细菌生殖寄生虫可能导致了线粒体DNA的清除。包括蝠蝇在内的寄生虫提供了有关其宿主的独立信息，可用于检验仅靠宿主遗传学可能难以评估的宿主扩散假设。
