Mihalik Bendegúz, Ágh Nóra, Pipoly Ivett, Nemesházi Edina, Szabó Krisztián, Seress Gábor, Liker András
HUN-REN-PE Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, University of Pannonia, Veszprém, Hungary.
Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Center for Natural Sciences, University of Pannonia, Veszprém, Hungary.
Biol Futur. 2025 Jun 17. doi: 10.1007/s42977-025-00259-1.
Gene flow may be limited between urban and non-urban populations of wild animals that can influence their landscape-level genetic structure and potential to adapt to new ecological conditions. To test this idea, we genetically characterized great tit (Parus major) populations breeding in an urban and a forest area 3.5 km apart, differing in several phenotypic traits some of which may contribute to adaptation to urban living. We used 16 microsatellite markers to genotype 189 breeding adult individuals (119 urban and 70 forest birds) and (1) tested whether the two populations are genetically differentiated, and (2) estimated the rate and direction of migration between the sites. Heterozygosity tended to be lower in the urban than in the forest habitat. Genetic population structure analyses did not show a consistent clustering of breeding birds between the urban and forest sites, and this conclusion was not affected by the inclusion of phenotypic data in the analyses. The pairwise fixation index (F) was low (0.009) and only 1% of the total genetic variance was explained by variation between populations. Finally, there was detectable gene flow between the two areas, and its estimated values did not suggest asymmetry in the direction of migration. We conclude that great tits living in the city are genetically connected to the nearby forest population by reciprocal migration, which may explain the low level of genetic differentiation.
在野生动物的城市和非城市种群之间，基因流动可能受到限制，这会影响它们在景观水平上的遗传结构以及适应新生态条件的潜力。为了验证这一观点，我们对在相距3.5公里的城市和森林地区繁殖的大山雀（Parus major）种群进行了基因特征分析，这两个地区在几个表型特征上存在差异，其中一些特征可能有助于适应城市生活。我们使用16个微卫星标记对189只繁殖成年个体（119只城市鸟类和70只森林鸟类）进行基因分型，并（1）测试这两个种群在基因上是否存在分化，以及（2）估计两个地点之间的迁移速率和方向。城市地区的杂合度往往低于森林栖息地。遗传种群结构分析并未显示城市和森林地点的繁殖鸟类存在一致的聚类，并且在分析中纳入表型数据也不影响这一结论。成对固定指数（F）较低（0.009），种群间变异仅解释了总遗传变异的1%。最后，两个地区之间存在可检测到的基因流动，其估计值并未表明迁移方向存在不对称性。我们得出结论，生活在城市中的大山雀通过相互迁移与附近的森林种群在基因上相连，这可能解释了遗传分化程度较低的原因。
