Laboratory for Amphibian Systematic and Evolutionary Research, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jan 27;13(1):1523. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-27988-4.
Despite their paramount importance in molecular ecology and conservation, genetic diversity and structure remain challenging to quantify with traditional genotyping methods. Next-generation sequencing holds great promises, but this has not been properly tested in highly mobile species. In this article, we compared microsatellite and RAD-sequencing (RAD-seq) analyses to investigate population structure in the declining bent-winged bat (Miniopterus schreibersii) across Europe. Both markers retrieved general patterns of weak range-wide differentiation, little sex-biased dispersal, and strong isolation by distance that associated with significant genetic structure between the three Mediterranean Peninsulas, which could have acted as glacial refugia. Microsatellites proved uninformative in individual-based analyses, but the resolution offered by genomic SNPs illuminated on regional substructures within several countries, with colonies sharing migrators of distinct ancestry without admixture. This finding is consistent with a marked philopatry and spatial partitioning between mating and rearing grounds in the species, which was suspected from marked-recaptured data. Our study advocates that genomic data are necessary to properly unveil the genetic footprints left by biogeographic processes and social organization in long-distant flyers, which are otherwise rapidly blurred by their high levels of gene flow.
尽管在分子生态学和保护生物学中具有至关重要的地位，但遗传多样性和结构仍然难以用传统的基因分型方法进行量化。下一代测序技术具有广阔的前景，但在高度迁徙的物种中尚未得到充分验证。在本文中，我们比较了微卫星和 RAD 测序（RAD-seq）分析，以调查欧洲范围内数量下降的弯翅蝠（Miniopterus schreibersii）的种群结构。这两种标记物都揭示了微弱的全谱系分化、性别偏向的扩散较少以及与三个地中海半岛之间显著遗传结构相关的强烈距离隔离的总体模式，这些半岛可能充当了冰川避难所。微卫星在个体基础分析中没有提供有用的信息，但基因组 SNP 的分辨率揭示了几个国家内的区域亚结构，这些亚结构中的殖民地没有混合，而是共享具有不同祖先的迁徙者。这一发现与物种中交配和育雏地之间明显的亲缘关系和空间分隔一致，这一点从标记重捕数据中可以推测出来。我们的研究表明，基因组数据对于正确揭示生物地理过程和社会组织在长途飞行者中留下的遗传痕迹是必要的，否则这些痕迹会被高水平的基因流迅速模糊。
