Habitat association predicts population connectivity and persistence in flightless beetles: a population genomics approach within a dynamic archipelago
Author(s)
Meramveliotakis, Emmanouil
Ortego, Joaquin
Anastasiou, Ioannis
Vogler, Alfried P
Papadopoulou, Anna
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Habitat association has been proposed to affect evolutionary dynamics through its control on dispersal propensity, which is considered a key trait for lineage survival in habitats of low durational stability. The Habitat Constraint hypothesis predicts different micro- and macroevolutionary patterns for stable versus dynamic habitat specialists, but the empirical evidence remains controversial and in insects mostly derives from winged lineages. We here use genome-wide SNP data to assess the effect of habitat association on the population dynamics of two closely related flightless lineages of the genus Eutagenia (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), which are co-distributed across the Cyclades islands in the Eastern Mediterranean but are associated with habitat types of different presumed stability: the psammophilous lineage is associated with dynamic sandy coastal habitats, while the geophilous lineage is associated with comparatively stable compact soil habitats. Our comparative population genomic and demographic analyses support higher inter-island gene flow in the psammophilous lineage, presumably due to the physical properties of dynamic sand-dune habitats that promote passive dispersal. We also find consistent bottlenecks in the psammophilous demes, suggesting that lineage evolution in the dynamic habitat is punctuated by local extinction and recolonisation events. The inferred demographic processes are surprisingly uniform among psammophilous demes, but vary considerably among geophilous demes depending on historical island connectivity, indicating more stringent constraints on the dynamic habitat lineage. This study extends the Habitat Constraint hypothesis by demonstrating that selection on dispersal traits is not the only mechanism that can drive consistent differences in evolutionary dynamics between stable versus dynamic habitat specialists.
Date Issued
2024-12-01
Date Acceptance
2024-09-30
Citation
Molecular Ecology, 2024, 33 (23)
ISSN
0962-1083
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Molecular Ecology
Volume
33
Issue
23
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Author(s). Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/39498576
Subjects
Aegean
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
ddRAD
demography
DISPERSAL ABILITY
Ecology
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
EVOLUTION
Evolutionary Biology
extinction-recolonisation
GENETIC DIVERSITY
habitat stability
ISLAND
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
METAPOPULATION
PROTRACTED SPECIATION
RECURRENT LOCAL EXTINCTION
sand dunes
Science & Technology
SPONTANEOUS MUTATION-RATE
TENEBRIONID BEETLES
VARIANT CALL FORMAT
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
e17577
Date Publish Online
2024-11-05