In:
PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science (PLoS), Vol. 17, No. 9 ( 2022-9-13), p. e0274554-
Abstract:
Species with low effective population sizes are at greater risk of extinction because of reduced genetic diversity. Such species are more vulnerable to chance events that decrease population sizes (e.g. demographic stochasticity). Dipodomys elator , (Texas kangaroo rat) is a kangaroo rat that is classified as threatened in Texas and field surveys from the past 50 years indicate that the distribution of this species has decreased. This suggests geographic range reductions that could have caused population fluctuations, potentially impacting effective population size. Conversely, the more common and widespread D . ordii (Ord’s kangaroo rat) is thought to exhibit relative geographic and demographic stability. We assessed the genetic variation of D . elator and D . ordii samples using 3RAD, a modified restriction site associated sequencing approach. We hypothesized that D . elator would show lower levels of nucleotide diversity, observed heterozygosity, and effective population size when compared to D . ordii . We were also interested in identifying population structure within contemporary samples of D . elator and detecting genetic variation between temporal samples to understand demographic dynamics. We analyzed up to 61,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms. We found that genetic variability and effective population size in contemporary D . elator populations is lower than that of D . ordii . There is slight, if any, population structure within contemporary D . elator samples, and we found low genetic differentiation between spatial or temporal historical samples. This indicates little change in nuclear genetic diversity over 30 years. Results suggest that genetic diversity of D . elator has remained stable despite reduced population size and/or abundance, which may indicate a metapopulation-like system, whose fluctuations might counteract species extinction.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1932-6203
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.g001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.g002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.g003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.g004
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.s001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.s002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.s003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.s004
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.s005
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.s006
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.s007
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.s008
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.s009
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.s010
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0274554.s011
Language:
English
Publisher:
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Publication Date:
2022
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2267670-3
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