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Hofmeister NR, Stuart KC, Warren WC, Werner SJ, Bateson M, Ball GF, Buchanan KL, Burt DW, Cardilini APA, Cassey P, De Meyer T, George J, Meddle SL, Rowland HM, Sherman CDH, Sherwin WB, Vanden Berghe W, Rollins LA, Clayton DF. Concurrent invasions of European starlings in Australia and North America reveal population-specific differentiation in shared genomic regions. Mol Ecol 2023. [PMID: 37933429 DOI: 10.1111/mec.17195] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2022] [Revised: 09/22/2023] [Accepted: 10/23/2023] [Indexed: 11/08/2023]
Abstract
A species' success during the invasion of new areas hinges on an interplay between the demographic processes common to invasions and the specific ecological context of the novel environment. Evolutionary genetic studies of invasive species can investigate how genetic bottlenecks and ecological conditions shape genetic variation in invasions, and our study pairs two invasive populations that are hypothesized to be from the same source population to compare how each population evolved during and after introduction. Invasive European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) established populations in both Australia and North America in the 19th century. Here, we compare whole-genome sequences among native and independently introduced European starling populations to determine how demographic processes interact with rapid evolution to generate similar genetic patterns in these recent and replicated invasions. Demographic models indicate that both invasive populations experienced genetic bottlenecks as expected based on invasion history, and we find that specific genomic regions have differentiated even on this short evolutionary timescale. Despite genetic bottlenecks, we suggest that genetic drift alone cannot explain differentiation in at least two of these regions. The demographic boom intrinsic to many invasions as well as potential inversions may have led to high population-specific differentiation, although the patterns of genetic variation are also consistent with the hypothesis that this infamous and highly mobile invader adapted to novel selection (e.g., extrinsic factors). We use targeted sampling of replicated invasions to identify and evaluate support for multiple, interacting evolutionary mechanisms that lead to differentiation during the invasion process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie R Hofmeister
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
- Fuller Evolutionary Biology Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA
| | - Katarina C Stuart
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Wesley C Warren
- Department of Animal Sciences and Surgery, Institute for Data Science and Informatics, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
| | - Scott J Werner
- United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
| | - Melissa Bateson
- Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Gregory F Ball
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
| | | | - David W Burt
- Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- The Roslin Institute, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, UK
| | - Adam P A Cardilini
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, Victoria, Australia
| | - Phillip Cassey
- Invasion Science & Wildlife Ecology Lab, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Tim De Meyer
- Department of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modelling, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Julia George
- Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA
| | - Simone L Meddle
- The Roslin Institute, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, UK
| | - Hannah M Rowland
- Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Craig D H Sherman
- The Roslin Institute, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, UK
| | - William B Sherwin
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Wim Vanden Berghe
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Lee Ann Rollins
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - David F Clayton
- Department of Genetics & Biochemistry, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA
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Marx HE, Carboni M, Douzet R, Perrier C, Delbart F, Thuiller W, Lavergne S, Tank DC. Can functional genomic diversity provide novel insights into mechanisms of community assembly? A pilot study from an invaded alpine streambed. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:12075-12091. [PMID: 34522362 PMCID: PMC8427620 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7973] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Revised: 05/28/2021] [Accepted: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
An important focus of community ecology, including invasion biology, is to investigate functional trait diversity patterns to disentangle the effects of environmental and biotic interactions. However, a notable limitation is that studies usually rely on a small and easy-to-measure set of functional traits, which might not immediately reflect ongoing ecological responses to changing abiotic or biotic conditions, including those that occur at a molecular or physiological level. We explored the potential of using the diversity of expressed genes-functional genomic diversity (FGD)-to understand ecological dynamics of a recent and ongoing alpine invasion. We quantified FGD based on transcriptomic data measured for 26 plant species occurring along adjacent invaded and pristine streambeds. We used an RNA-seq approach to summarize the overall number of expressed transcripts and their annotations to functional categories, and contrasted this with functional trait diversity (FTD) measured from a suite of characters that have been traditionally considered in plant ecology. We found greater FGD and FTD in the invaded community, independent of differences in species richness. However, the magnitude of functional dispersion was greater from the perspective of FGD than from FTD. Comparing FGD between congeneric alien-native species pairs, we did not find many significant differences in the proportion of genes whose annotations matched functional categories. Still, native species with a greater relative abundance in the invaded community compared with the pristine tended to express a greater fraction of genes at significant levels in the invaded community, suggesting that changes in FGD may relate to shifts in community composition. Comparisons of diversity patterns from the community to the species level offer complementary insights into processes and mechanisms driving invasion dynamics. FGD has the potential to illuminate cryptic changes in ecological diversity, and we foresee promising avenues for future extensions across taxonomic levels and macro-ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah E. Marx
- Department of Biology & Museum of Southwestern BiologyUniversity of New MexicoAlbuquerqueNew MexicoUSA
| | | | - Rolland Douzet
- CNRSLautaretJardin du LautaretUniversité Grenoble AlpesGrenobleFrance
| | | | - Franck Delbart
- CNRSLautaretJardin du LautaretUniversité Grenoble AlpesGrenobleFrance
| | - Wilfried Thuiller
- Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA)CNRSUniversité Grenoble AlpesUniversité Savoie Mont BlancGrenobleFrance
| | - Sébastien Lavergne
- Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA)CNRSUniversité Grenoble AlpesUniversité Savoie Mont BlancGrenobleFrance
| | - David C. Tank
- Department of Biological SciencesUniversity of IdahoMoscowIdahoUSA
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary StudiesUniversity of IdahoMoscowIdahoUSA
- Stillinger HerbariumUniversity of IdahoMoscowIdahoUSA
- Present address:
Department of Botany and Rocky Mountain HerbariumUniversity of WyomingLaramieWY82072‐3165USA
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