Caribbean Island Zoogeography: A New Approach Using Mitochondrial DNA to Study Neotropical Bats (original) (raw)

Genetic analysis of animal mitochondrial DNA is a new and valuable addition to the battery of techniques available to zoogeographers. This paper describes characteristics of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that make it applicable for the study of island zoogeography. Some traditional zoogeographic questions are examined using mtDNA from the Neotropical fruit bat, Artibeus jamaicensis. The specific questions are: 1) To what extent are island populations isolated (that is, does interbreeding occur between the insular subspecies)? 2) Can a single founding female account for the mitochondrial genomes on specific islands in the Antilles? 3) Is there a correlation between the genomic diversity of an island population and the size of the island or the distance from the mainland? The mitochondrial genome in Artibeus jamaicensis is approximately 16,000-16,500 base pairs. Three major mtDNA groups (designated J, SV, and G), separated by 8 to 17.2 percent divergence in nucleotide sequence, were ident...

Sign up for access to the world's latest research.

checkGet notified about relevant papers

checkSave papers to use in your research

checkJoin the discussion with peers

checkTrack your impact