Signorile, AL;
Wang, J;
Lurz, PWW;
Bertolino, S;
Carbone, C;
Reuman, DC;
(2014)
Do founder size, genetic diversity and structure influence rates of expansion of North American grey squirrels in Europe?
Diversity and Distributions
, 20
(8)
pp. 918-930.
10.1111/ddi.12222.
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Abstract
Aim This study investigates how founder size may affect local genetic diversity and spatial genetic structure of the invasive American eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) in European areas. It also examines whether dispersal propensity and invasion rate may be related to founder size, genetic diversity and structure. Location Piedmont, Italy; Northern Ireland, Northumberland and East Anglia, UK. Methods Across the invaded range in Europe, 315 squirrels from 14 locations, grouped in four areas, were sampled and examined at 12 highly polymorphic microsatellite loci. We estimated both genetic variation and population structure using AMOVA, Mantel tests and Bayesian analysis. We also estimated migration rates and range expansion rates. Results Genetic diversity varied in accordance with numbers of founders across populations. For instance, the Italian population had the smallest founder size and lowest genetic variability, whereas Northumberland had high values for both. Significant levels of genetic differentiation were observed in all the examined regions. Gene flow, migration and population range expansion rate were also higher in England and Ireland than in Italy. Main conclusions Populations descending from human-mediated releases of few individuals were more genetically depauperate and more differentiated than populations established from a greater number of founders. Propagule pressure is therefore a significant factor in squirrel invasions. There is a trend whereby larger founder sizes were associated with greater genetic diversity, more dispersal, less local genetic differentiation and faster range expansion rate in squirrels. These findings have important management implications for controlling spread rate of squirrels and other invasive species: good practice should prioritize preventing further releases and the merging of genetically distinct populations as these events can augment genetic diversity.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Do founder size, genetic diversity and structure influence rates of expansion of North American grey squirrels in Europe? |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/ddi.12222 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12222 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | 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. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
| Keywords: | Alien species, biological invasions, dispersal rate, genetic variation, invasive, microsatellites, propagule pressure, Sciurus carolinensis. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10061191 |
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