The central Alps comprise a major dispersal barrier between western and eastern populations of two butterfly species

Trense, Daronja; Jager, Laura; Fischer, Klaus

doi:10.1111/jbi.14397

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Topographic barriers causing strong genomic differentiation between natural populations are known to exist in the Alpine region (Schönswetter et al, 2002;Thiel-Egenter et al, 2009, 2011. Genomic differentiation between collections from the western and eastern parts of the central Alps has been reported in population structure studies of insect species, such as the copper butterfly Lycaena hippothoe, the mountain butterfly Erebia alberganus, and the mountain cadmietta Drusus discolor, indicating the presence of genetic barriers in the central part of the Alps (Louy et al, 2014;Pauls et al, 2006;Trense et al, 2022). Glaciation events that occurred in the Pleistocene caused changes in the geographic distribution of numerous species and may be the reason for genomic differentiation between eastern and western populations of alpine species (Hewitt, 2004;Schmitt, 2009;Thiel-Egenter et al, 2011).…”

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confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal patterns in the population genomics of the European cockchafer Melolontha melolontha in the Alpine region

Pedrazzini,

Strasser,

Zemp

et al. 2023

Evolutionary Applications

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The European cockchafer Melolontha melolontha is an agricultural pest in many European countries. Populations have a synchronized 3 or 4 years life cycle, leading to temporally isolated populations. Despite the economic importance and availability of comprehensive historical as well as current records on cockchafer occurrence, population genomic analyses of M. melolontha are missing. For example, the effects of geographic separation caused by the mountainous terrain of the Alps and of temporal isolation on the genomic structure of M. melolontha still remain unknown. To address this gap, we genotyped 475 M. melolontha adults collected during 3 years from 35 sites in a central Alpine region. Subsequent population structure analyses discriminated two main genetic clusters, i.e., the South Tyrol cluster including collections located southeast of the Alpine mountain range, and a northwestern alpine cluster with all the other collections, reflecting distinct evolutionary history and geographic barriers. The “passo di Resia” linking South and North Tyrol represented a regional contact zone of the two genetic clusters, highlighting genomic differentiation between the collections from the northern and southern regions. Although the collections from northwestern Italy were assigned to the northwestern alpine genetic cluster, they displayed evidence of admixture with the South Tyrolean genetic cluster, suggesting shared ancestry. A linear mixed model confirmed that both geographic distance and, to a lower extent, also temporal isolation had a significant effect on the genetic distance among M. melolontha populations. These effects may be attributed to limited dispersal capacity and reproductive isolation resulting from synchronized and non‐synchronized swarming flights, respectively. This study contributes to the understanding of the phylogeography of an organism that is recognized as an agricultural problem and provides significant information on the population genomics of insect species with prolonged temporally shifted and locally synchronized life cycles.

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