Contrasted patterns of mitochondrial and nuclear structure among nursery colonies of the bat Myotis myotis

Abstract

Thirteen nursery colonies of Myotis myotis were sampled in central Europe to investigate the dispersal behaviour of this bat species. Mitochondrial DNA sequences of 260 bats reveal the occurrence of three evolutionary lineages that have probably originated in distinct glacial refugia and meet in a contact zone near the Alps. Moreover, the strong haplotypic segregation (ΦST=0.540) suggests that breeding females are philopatric. Contrastingly, the low population structure at 15 microsatellite loci (FST=0.022), suggests the homogenizing effect of nuclear gene flow. The different perspectives given by these two markers are consistent with strong male‐biased dispersal. As a result of female philopatry, the local haplotypic variability seems to be largely influenced by historical processes of colonization. Conversely, the homogeneity of nuclear variability within roosts that are located north of the Alps seems to mainly reflect contemporary gene flow. Finally, despite the fact that females are faithful to their natal colony, movements of both males and females occur outside the breeding period. Mitochondrial survey of individuals sampled exclusively in nurseries may thus poorly reflect the metapopulation dynamics of this species.

All-offspring dispersal in a tropical mammal with resource defense polygyny

“…In accordance with the general mammalian pattern (Greenwood 1980), females of most group-living bats, including some harem-forming species and all temperate zone species, are strongly philopatric (Burland et al 1999Kerth et al 2000;Castella et al 2001;Petit et al 2001;Rossiter et al 2002). In contrast, males of most species studied to date leave the natal colony and live solitarily or in groups of males.…”

“…Few studies link data on bat mating systems to patterns shaping genetic population structure, such as offspring dispersal (Rossiter et al 2000a;Burland and Worthington-Wilmer 2001;Petit et al 2001;Kerth et al 2002aKerth et al , 2003. Finally, gene flow in bats has most often been investigated at a large geographical scale (Burland and Worthington-Wilmer 2001) where the effect of mating systems may not be detectable (Rossiter et al 2000a;Castella et al 2001;Petit et al 2001; but see Kerth et al 2002b).…”

New insights on postglacial colonization in western Europe: the phylogeography of the Leisler's bat (Nyctalus leisleri)

“…A 324 base pair (bp) region of the hypervariable mtDNA control region (D-loop) was amplified for a subset of samples from Ireland (n ¼ 67; an average five per site) and France (n ¼ 15), and all other European samples, by PCR using the universal primers L16517 [32] and 130 sH651 [29]. PCR amplifications were carried out in 50 ml reaction volumes as follows: 1-3 ml of template DNA (approx.…”

Comparative phylogeography of bamboo bats of the genus Tylonycteris (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) in Southeast Asia

“…Indeed, bat species with philopatric females generally display high geographic structure when relationships are examined with maternally inherited markers, such as the mitochondrial DNA. This pattern can disappear with biparentally inherited markers when adult males are able to disperse over long distances, allowing gene flow between otherwise isolated populations (Castella et al 2001;Hassanin et al 2015;Hulva et al 2010;Pereira et al 2009;Rivers et al 2005). Behavioral and population genetic studies in southern China have shown that T. pachypus bats are philopatric to their natal area and that philopatry is especially pronounced in females (Hua et al 2011(Hua et al , 2013.…”