Barão-Nóbrega, J.A.L. orcid.org/0000-0002-4814-2871, González-Jáuregui, M. orcid.org/0000-0002-4330-0367, Padilla-Paz, S. orcid.org/0000-0001-6530-6658 et al. (4 more authors) (2023) Characterising a genetic stronghold amidst pervasive admixture: Morelet’s crocodiles (Crocodylus moreletii) in central Yucatan. Conservation Genetics, 24 (6). pp. 893-903. ISSN 1566-0621
Abstract
When backcrosses are fertile, interbreeding between endangered taxa can lead to the admixture of gene pools under threat. One such case pertains to the Mesoamerican crocodile Crocodylus moreletii, a species which shows strong signatures of both recent hybridisation and historic intogression with the American crocodile C. acutus across large parts of its range. In the present paper, we use RAD-seq derived SNPs (4980 nuclear and seven mtDNA loci) to demonstrate that C. moreletii populations inhabiting the region of Calakmul in central Yucatan (Mexico) are rather unaffected by hybridization, despite being surrounded by coastal areas where pervasive admixture has previously been documented. All (based on fastSTRUCTURE) and 96% (based on NGSadmix) of 84 genotyped individuals from 18 sampled waterbodies (locally termed aguadas) were free from nuclear introgression of C. acutus DNA at at threshold of 0.95. Seven individuals (8%) possessed a C. acutus mtDNA haplotype, five of which were derived from two adjacent, rather peripheral aguadas. Spatial inferences based on a DAPC and fineRADstructure further showed that the region of Calakmul is inhabited by three genetic clusters spanning across a set of distinct aguadas each. Taken together, our findings reveal that central Yucatan contains the currently largest documented stronghold of C. moreletii populations only marginally affected by introgression, which has major implications for the conservation management of this important flagship species.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Crocodiles; Hybridisation; Genetic swamping; Population genetics; Conservation |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 14 Nov 2023 12:56 |
Last Modified: | 14 Nov 2023 12:56 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10592-023-01544-z |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:205267 |