Regionally and climatically restricted patterns of distribution of genetic diversity in a migratory bat species, Miniopterus schreibersii (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae)

Abstract

BackgroundVarious mechanisms such as geographic barriers and glacial episodes have been proposed as determinants of intra-specific and inter-specific differentiation of populations, and the distribution of their genetic diversity. More recently, habitat and climate differences, and corresponding adaptations have been shown to be forces influencing the phylogeographic evolution of some vertebrates. In this study, we examined the contribution of these various factors on the genetic differentiation of the bent-winged bat, Miniopterus schreibersii, in southeastern Europe and Anatolia.Results and conclusionOur results showed differentiation in mitochondrial DNA coupled with weaker nuclear differentiation. We found evidence for restriction of lineages to geographical areas for hundreds of generations. The results showed that the most likely ancestral haplotype was restricted to the same geographic area (the Balkans) for at least 6,000 years. We were able to delineate the migration routes during the population expansion process, which followed the coasts and the inland for different nested mitochondrial clades. Hence, we were able to describe a scenario showing how multiple biotic and abiotic events including glacial periods, climate and historical dispersal patterns complemented each other in causing regional and local differentiation within a species.

Syntopic Occurrence in Turkey Supports Separate Species Status forMiniopterus schreibersii schreibersiiandM. schreibersii pallidus(Mammalia: Chiroptera)

“…The finding of the two taxa in sympatry supports a case for definition of these as two separate species rather than subspecies. They show differentiation in their phenotype (morphology and echolocation) and genomes (nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA), as shown by this study and previous ones (Bilgin et al, 2008;Furman et al, 2009Furman et al, , 2010c. They have partially overlapping ranges on their distributional margin and more importantly, now there is proof that these two taxa can appear in syntopy, roosting in the same caves.…”

“…The phylogenetic differentiation of M. s. schreibersii and M. s. pallidus is well established in the literature (Bilgin et al, 2008;Furman et al, 2010a); therefore, rather than building a tree, a haplotype network was made using the D-loop haplotypes sequenced in this study, as well as all of the previously published haplotypes for this species from the region (Furman et al, 2010b). The network was prepared using the parsimony method at the 95% cut-off limit, as implemented in the program TCS v.1.21 (Clement et al, 2000).…”

Population genetic structure of the melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae) based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase (COI) gene sequences

“…2). This kind of post Pleistocene population expansion has been documented in relatively few taxa such as in human (Eshleman et al 2004;Tanaka et al 2004), pea aphid (Peccoud et al 2009) and bat (Bilgin et al 2008). With the hypothesis of Indian origin of the B. cucurbitae with recent expansion to the rest of the world, it still remains unclear that why none of the Hawaiian haplotypes identified in this study was present in Indian subcontinent.…”

Mitochondrial genetic differentiation and morphological difference of Miniopterus fuliginosus and Miniopterus magnater in China and Vietnam

“…) and M. schreibersii pallidus in southeastern Turkey (Bilgin et al. ), Miniopterus manavi in Madagascar and Comoros (Goodman et al. ), Miniopterus fraterculus (Goodman et al.…”

“…In this study, these two sister bent-winged bat species correspond to different spatial distributions, the Chinese mainland for M. fuliginosus and tropical regions for M. magnater (Figs 2 and 3). Several mechanisms may be hypothesized to explain the current distribution pattern of M. fuliginosus and M. magnater, including palaeoclimatic changes (Jablonski and Whitfort 1999), climate differences (Miller-Butterworth et al 2003;Bilgin et al 2008), ecological attributes (Lin et al 2014), and geographic isolation (Smissen et al 2013).…”