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Journal of Heredity Advance Access published online on June 3, 2009
Journal of Heredity, doi:10.1093/jhered/esp032
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© The American Genetic Association. 2009. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Population Structure of a Cave-Dwelling Bat, Miniopterus schreibersii: Does It Reflect History and Social Organization?

Maria João Ramos Pereira, Patrícia Salgueiro, Luísa Rodrigues, Maria Manuela Coelho, and Jorge M. Palmeirim

From the Department of Animal Biology, Center for Environmental Biology, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal (Ramos Pereira, Salgueiro, Coelho, and Palmeirim); the Institute for Nature Conservation and Biodiversity, Rua de Santa Marta, 55, 1150-294 Lisboa, Portugal (Rodrigues); and the Center for Malaria and Other Tropical Diseases, Associated Laboratory/Institute of Hygiene Tropical Medicine, R. Junqueira, 96, 1349-008 Lisboa, Portugal (Salgueiro)

Address correspondence to M. J. Ramos Pereira at the address above, or e-mail: mjvpereira{at}fc.ul.pt.

Many colonial bat species make regional migrations, and the consequent gene flow may eliminate geographic genetic structure resulting from history of colonization. In this study, we verified that history and social organization have detectable impacts on the genetic structure of Miniopterus schreibersii, a cave-dwelling bat with high female philopatry. After studying all known nursing colonies in Portugal, we concluded that there is a significant geographic structure and that the overall pattern is similar for mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. Both pairwise {Phi}ST and FST were significantly correlated with geographical distance, suggesting that isolation by distance is relevant for both mitochondrial and nuclear markers. However, structuring of mitochondrial DNA was much more marked than that of nuclear DNA, a consequence of the strong female philopatry and a bias for male-mediated gene flow. Wintering colonies were more genetically diverse than nursing colonies because the former receive individuals from distinct breeding populations. Haplotype diversity of the northern colonies, the more recent according to population expansion analyses, is only about half of that of the central and southern colonies. This is most likely a consequence of the colonization history of M. schreibersii, which presumably expanded northward from the south of the Iberian Peninsula or North Africa after the last glacial age.

Key Words: male-mediated gene flow • Mediterranean • migratory • Miniopterus • philopatry

Corresponding Editor: Dr. Warren Johnson

Received August 11, 2008
Revised April 22, 2009
Accepted April 23, 2009


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