Genetic Similarity Amongst Phenotypically Diverse Little Free-Tailed Bats, Chaerephon pumilus (original) (raw)
Related papers
African Zoology, 2009
Malagasy populations of the small and morphologically variable, house-roosting molossid bat, Chaerephon pumilus in relation to Malagasy populations of the related, smaller-sized species, C. leucogaster. Both cytochrome b and D-loop sequences show C. leucogaster to be nested within C. pumilus sensu lato, with Malagasy C. pumilus forming a sister group to African C. pumilus and Malagasy C. leucogaster. Four distinct D-loop clades are found in southern African populations, all of which occur sympatrically in the greater Durban area of KwaZulu-Natal Province, whilst two of the Durban clades also characterize 1) northern KwaZulu-Natal and low-lying (<600 m) areas of Swaziland, and 2) 'inland' populations comprising the Kruger National Park and higher-lying (>600 m) areas of Swaziland. Clades from low-lying areas show evidence of historical demographic expansion around 3300-13 000 years ago (KwaZulu-Natal coastal clade, Clade A1) to 14 700-60 000 years ago (Durban clade, Clade B1), whilst the inland clade (Clade B2a) was demographically more stable. The origin of these clades can be explained by sea level and vegetation changes hypothesized to follow the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) after 18 000 years ago. Sympatric clades are shown to differ significantly in the proportional width of the braincase, and ongoing work will test evidence for acoustic and other morphological differences between them.
BMC Evolutionary Biology
Background: The Old World insectivorous bat genus Rhinolophus is highly speciose. Over the last 15 years, the number of its recognized species has grown from 77 to 106, but knowledge of their interrelationships has not kept pace. Species limits and phylogenetic relationships of this morphologically conservative group remain problematic due both to poor sampling across the Afrotropics and to repeated instances of mitochondrial-nuclear discordance. Recent intensive surveys in East Africa and neighboring regions, coupled with parallel studies by others in West Africa and in Southern Africa, offer a new basis for understanding its evolutionary history. Results: We investigated phylogenetic relationships and intraspecific genetic variation in the Afro-Palearctic clade of Rhinolophidae using broad sampling. We sequenced mitochondrial cytochrome-b (1140 bp) and four independent and informative nuclear introns (2611 bp) for 213 individuals and incorporated sequence data from 210 additional individuals on GenBank that together represent 24 of the 33 currently recognized Afrotropical Rhinolophus species. We addressed the widespread occurrence of mito-nuclear discordance in Rhinolophus by inferring concatenated and species tree phylogenies using only the nuclear data. Well resolved mitochondrial, concatenated nuclear, and species trees revealed phylogenetic relationships and population structure of the Afrotropical species and species groups. Conclusions: Multiple well-supported and deeply divergent lineages were resolved in each of the six African Rhinolophus species groups analyzed, suggesting as many as 12 undescribed cryptic species; these include several instances of sympatry among close relatives. Coalescent lineage delimitation offered support for new undescribed lineages in four of the six African groups in this study. On the other hand, two to five currently recognized species may be invalid based on combined mitochondrial and/or nuclear phylogenetic analyses. Validation of these cryptic lineages as species and formal relegation of current names to synonymy will require integrative taxonomic assessments involving morphology, ecology, acoustics, distribution, and behavior. The resulting phylogenetic framework offers a powerful basis for addressing questions regarding their ecology and evolution.
Zoologica Scripta, 2013
Conflicting mitochondrial and nuclear paraphyly in small-sized West African house bats (Vespertilionidae).-Zoologica Scripta, 42, 1-12. Hybridization between species may result in introgression of mitochondrial DNA from one species to another. Phylogenetic inference, therefore, may not recover true evolutionary relationships. In bats, there are only a few reported cases of introgressive hybridization. House bats are a genus with obscure phylogeny and taxonomy, caused mainly by morphological similarity. We undertook a detailed analysis of small-sized West African house bats (Scotophilus), tentatively identified as S. nigritellus, to clarify relationships between two sympatric colour forms. These forms were recovered in paraphyletic position to each other in both mitochondrial and nuclear phylogenies, signifying that they are two distinct species. While the yellow-bellied form could be assigned beyond doubt to S. nigritellus s. str., the white-bellied form may be an as yet undescribed species. Moreover, the white-bellied form clustered as a sister mitochondrial lineage to another species, Scotophilus leucogaster. These sister lineages differed by only 2.6-2.8% sequence divergence, which lies within the intraspecific range for this genus. Two nuclear markers, however, contradicted the sister relationship, showing them instead to be distantly related. The apparent conflict between the mitochondrial and nuclear signals suggests that past hybridization may have occurred between these morphologically distinct species.
African Journal of Biotechnology, 2013
Microsatellite loci for Chaerephon pumilus sensu lato from south eastern Africa were cross-amplified using primers developed for the Mexican free-tailed bat, Tadarida brasiliensis. Two dinucleotide and four tetranucleotide loci were recovered and genotyped for 74 bats, yielding 9 to 15 alleles per locus. The observed and expected heterozygosities were 0.06 to 0.84 and 0.54 to 0.81 respectively, and the PIC values ranged from 0.51 to 0.80, indicative of considerable variability within the sample. There was no evidence of linkage disequilibrium among pairs of loci, or of deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. These six loci were informative in studies of population genetic structure of C. pumilus sensu lato.
Acta Chiropterologica, 2011
Two mitochondrial lineages of bats that are morphologically attributed to Hipposideros ruber have been shown to occur sympatrically in southeastern Senegal. We studied genetic diversity in these bats in the Niokolo Koba National Park using sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene to determine the taxonomic status of the two genetic forms, and included skull morphology for comparison. Detailed multidimensional analysis of skull measurements indicated slight morphological differences between the two genetic forms. Exploration of peak frequency of the constant-frequency echolocation signals in a local population of Hipposideros aff. ruber was not available for both groups. Phylogenetic comparison with other available West African representatives of H. aff. ruber revealed paraphyletic relationship of the two Senegalese forms, with the less abundant form from Senegal forming a monophyletic group with that from Benin. Based on genetic divergence and sympatric occurrence, the two forms from Senegal might represent cryptic species. However, absence of nuclear gene flow between them is yet to be investigated to demonstrate their reproductive isolation.
Correlated Genetic and Ecological Diversification in a Widespread Southern African Horseshoe Bat
PLoS ONE, 2012
The analysis of molecular data within a historical biogeographical framework, coupled with ecological characteristics can provide insight into the processes driving diversification. Here we assess the genetic and ecological diversity within a widespread horseshoe bat Rhinolophus clivosus sensu lato with specific emphasis on the southern African representatives which, although not currently recognized, were previously described as a separate species R. geoffroyi comprising four subspecies. Sequence divergence estimates of the mtDNA control region show that the southern African representatives of R. clivosus s.l. are as distinct from samples further north in Africa than they are from R. ferrumequinum, the sister-species to R. clivosus. Within South Africa, five genetically supported geographic groups exist and these groups are corroborated by echolocation and wing morphology data. The groups loosely correspond to the distributions of the previously defined subspecies and Maxent modelling shows a strong correlation between the detected groups and ecoregions. Based on molecular clock calibrations, it is evident that climatic cycling and related vegetation changes during the Quaternary may have facilitated diversification both genetically and ecologically.
Sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene have been shown to be useful for species identification in various groups of animals. However, the DNA barcoding approach has never been tested on African fruit bats of the family Pteropodidae (Mammalia, Chiroptera). In this study, the COI gene was sequenced from 120 bats collected in the Central African Republic and belonging to either Epomophorus gambianus or Micropteropus pusillus, two species easily diagnosed on the basis of morphological characters, such as body size, skull shape and palatal ridges. Two additional molecular markers were used for comparisons: the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and the intron 7 of the nuclear b-fibrinogen (FGB) gene. Our results reveal an unexpected discordance between mitochondrial and nuclear genes. The nuclear FGB signal agrees with our morphological identifications, as the three alleles detected for E. gambianus are divergent from the fourteen alleles found for M. pusillus. By contrast, this taxonomic distinction is not recovered with the analyses of mitochondrial genes, which support rather a polyphyletic pattern for both species. The conflict between molecular markers is explained by multiple mtDNA introgression events from M. pusillus into E. gambianus or, alternatively, by incomplete lineage sorting of mtDNA haplotypes associated with positive selection on FGB alleles of M. pusillus. Our work shows the failure of DNA barcoding to discriminate between two morphologically distinct fruit bat species and highlights the importance of using both mitochondrial and nuclear markers for taxonomic identification.
Systematic Status of African Populations of Long-eared Bats Genus Plecotus (Mammalia: Chiroptera)
2004
Long-eared bats of the genus Plecotus are widespread over most of temperate Eurasia, marginally reaching the African continent and Macaronesia. Previously, all African populations were assigned to one species, P. auritus, and later to P. austriacus. We analysed museum specimens of African long-eared bat populations using both morphologic and genetic techniques. Based on morphological evidence we recognise four well-defined allopatric populations in northern Africa. They differ in fur coloration, skull morphology and bacular traits. The molecular data support a division of the African populations into at least three well-separated evolutionary lineages. With a combination of these data we define three species of Plecotus occurring in Africa (incl. the Canary Islands) and describe a new subspecies. Small, very pale greyish-brown Egyptian long-eared bats (P. christii Gray, 1838) inhabit desert and semi-deserts habitats of eastern Sahara (Libyan Desert, Nile Valley of Egypt and northern Sudan). Smaller to medium-sized, dark brown Ethiopian long-eared bats (P. balensis Kruskop et Lavrenchenko, 2000) inhabit the Ethiopian Highlands above 2000 metres a. s. l. This form represents the only Afro-tropical species of Plecotus. Large, dark greyish Canarian long-eared bats (P. teneriffae teneriffae Barret-Hamilton, 1907) occur on the three western islands of the Canarian Archipelago. A medium-sized greyish-brown Gaisler's long-eared bat, P. teneriffae gaisleri subsp. n., is described from the Mediterranean region of Cyrenaica, northeastern Libya. Due to the lack of substantial morphological differences we preliminarily consider the Maghrebian population of long-eared bats to be consubspecific with P. teneriffae gaisleri subsp. n. The systematic position of the population of Cape Verde Islands remains uncertain.
2008
Otomops martiensseni is sparsely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa and southwestern Arabia (Yemen). Otomops madagascariensis from the dry portions of Madagascar is widely recognised to be a distinct species. Based on mitochondrial DNA sequences of the cytochrome b gene (1,004 base pairs; n = 50) and the control region (D-loop, 290 base pairs; n = 52), two Oriental outgroup species (O. wroughtoni and O. cf. formosus) formed a monophyletic clade that was the sister group to the Afro-Malagasy taxa, composed of O. martiensseni and O. madagascariensis. Within the Afro-Malagasy clade, we discovered three well-supported but genetically similar clades (inter-clade genetic distances of 3.4-4.4%) from 1) north-eastern Africa and Arabia, 2) African mainland except northeast Africa, and 3) Madagascar. Taken together, haplotype networks, estimated divergence times, regional species richness and historical demographic data tentatively suggested dispersal from Asia to Africa and Madagascar. To understand ecological determinants of phylogeographic, biogeographic and genetic structure, we assessed the potential distribution of O. martiensseni throughout sub-Saharan Africa with ecological niche modelling (MaxEnt) based on known point localities (n = 60). The species is predicted to occur mainly in woodlands and forests and in areas of rough topography. Continuity of suitable habitats supported our inferred high levels of continental gene flow (relatively low genetic distances), and suggested that factors other than habitat suitability have resulted in the observed phylogeographic structure (e.g., seasonal mass migrations of insects that might be tracked by these bats). Based on a Bayesian relaxed clock approach and two fossil calibration dates, we estimated that African and Oriental clades diverged at 4.2 Mya, Malagasy and African clades at 1.5 Mya, and African clades 1 and 2 at 1.2 Mya. Integrating phylogenetic, phylogeographic, population genetic and ecological approaches holds promise for a better understanding of biodiversity patterns and evolutionary processes.
Journal of Mammalogy, 2005
Abstract The Natal long-fingered bat (Miniopterus natalensis) and lesser long-fingered bat (M. fraterculus) are morphologically almost indistinguishable and occur sympatrically over much of their southern African range. This raises the possibility that they are sister taxa. We employed a multidisciplinary approach to examine their taxonomic relationship to one another and to other Miniopterus species, whose global phylogeny requires review. We examined echolocation, morphological, and dietary differences between M. natalensis ...