Genetic structure of the threatened West-Pannonian population of Great Bustard (Otis tarda)

The genetic diversity, population structure and gene flow of the Great Bustards (Otis tarda) living in Austria-Slovakia-West Hungary (West-Pannonian region), one of the few populations of this globally threatened species that survives across the Palaearctic, has been assessed for the first time in this study. Fourteen recently developed microsatellite loci identified one single population in the study area, with high values of genetic diversity and gene flow between two different genetic subunits. One of these subunits (Heideboden) was recognized as a priority for conservation, as it could be crucial to maintain connectivity with the central Hungarian population and thus contribute to keeping contemporary genetic diversity. Current conservation efforts have been successful in saving this threatened population from extinction two decades ago, and should continue to guarantee its future survival

Restoration of native Atlantic salmon runs in northern Spain: do costs outweigh benefits?

Atlantic salmon stocks in northern Spain are at the southern range of the species distribution. As such they are likely more vulnerable to environmental change and human disturbance. The Nalon-Narcea River salmon is one such population in Asturias, Spain. The river is dammed throughout the watershed with few fish passage facilities. However, angling data show that salmon returns are consistent although the population is relatively small. We have employed one tributary as a model, the River Trubia. Although some problems of agriculture and industrial pollution have been detected downstream, an upstream habitat evaluation suggests that adequate spawning and juvenile habitat exists. The regional Government has proposed to construct fishways for allowing upstream passage of salmon. This would potentially increase salmon production, but there are also some concerns like increased hybridization of salmon and trout which is already evident downriver and which previous work suggests will increase as salmon colonize new habitat, and potential changes in fishing regulations as salmon distributions shift upriver and away from traditional angling areas. Here, we present an overview of ecological and social aspects of salmon habitat restoration in the River Nalon-Narcea that we hope will provide solutions that balance costs and benefits and may be applicable to other anadromous populations

Human decimation caused bottleneck effect, genetic drift, and inbreeding in the Canarian houbara bustard

An endangered subspecies of the African houbara bustard, the Canarian houbara (Chlamydotis undulata fuertaventurae), is endemic to the Canary Islands off southern Morocco (Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and La Graciosa islands). This population decreased over the last centuries because of hunting and egg collection, and was close to extinction in Lanzarote around the middle of last century. Later, the species recovered because of hunting bans, but in Fuerteventura a significant decline has again occurred in the last decades and houbaras are on the brink of extirpation on that island. We describe the genetic characteristics and recent evolutionary history of this subspecies to provide essential information for the evaluation of the conservation actions implemented and for the development of new measures to prevent further declines and local extirpations. We amplified microsatellite loci to infer genetic variability, population structure, and gene flow. The subspecies exhibited relatively high genetic variability but reduced heterozygosity. In spite of high gene flow among locations and islands, we identified 2 genetic units: 1 comprising La Graciosa and Fuerteventura islands, and the other restricted to Lanzarote. We detected genetic bottlenecks and subsequent inbreeding in both units, with a reduced effective number alleles in Lanzarote compared to Fuerteventura‐La Graciosa. This genetic structure may be explained by human‐induced historical population declines and an associated bottleneck effect, particularly in Lanzarote. Conservation measures should aim to recover the houbara population of Fuerteventura, improving survival of adults and juvenile productivity, and to ensure that genetic flow continues among breeding locations and islands to recover the original population structure (an unique genetic unit over the range of the species) and prevent further genetic deterioration, which could lead to extirpation of this endemic subspecies

Laboratorio en abierto: aprendendiendo a copiar ADN.2

El objetivo principal del proyecto es la puesta a punto de recursos educativos en abierto (REA) dirigidos a los alumnos de secundaria. La propuesta pretende desarrollar habilidades, para la resolución de problemas científicos, a través de retos que despierten el interés y la imaginación de los alumnos de secundaria. En esta propuesta la resolución de los problemas planteados estaría basada en la aplicación de una herramienta que ha revolucionado la genética y biología, la reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa, conocida como PCR

Reversals in complex traits uncovered as reticulation events: Lessons from the evolution of parity-mode, chromosome morphology, and maternal resource transfer

[EN] Complex traits include, among many others, the evolution of eyes, wings, body forms, reproductive modes, human intelligence, social behaviour, diseases, and chromosome morphology. Dollo¿s law states that the evolution of complex traits is irreversible. However, potential exceptions have been proposed. Here, we investigated whether reticulation, a simple and elegant means by which complex characters may be reacquired, could account for suggested reversals in the evolution of complex characters using two datasets with sufficient genetic coverage and a total of five potential reversals. Our analyses uncovered a potential reversal in the evolution of parity mode and a potential reversal in the evolution of placentotrophy of fish (Cyprinodontiformes) as reticulation events. Moreover, in a reptile that exhibits a potential reversal from viviparity to oviparity (Zootoca vivipara), reticulation provided the most parsimonious explanation for sex chromosome evolution. Therefore, three of the five studied potential reversals were unravelled as reticulation events. This constitutes the first evidence that accounting for reticulation can fundamentally influence the interpretation of the evolution of complex traits, that testing for reticulation is crucial for obtaining robust phylogenies, and that complex ancestral characters may be reacquired through hybridization with a lineage that still exhibits the trait. Hybridization, rather than re-appearance of ancestral traits by means of small evolutionary steps, may thus account for suggested exceptions to Dollo¿s law. Consequently, ruling out reticulation is required to claim evolutionary reversal of complex characters and potential exceptions to Dollo's ruleEU Marie Curie‐Clarín CoFund, Grant/Award Number: ACA14–26; Swiss National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Numbers: PP00P3_152929/1, PPOOP3_128375; Spanish MINECO postdoc, Grant/Award Number: FPDI‐2013‐16116; Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, Grant/Award Number: CGL2008‐01522 and CGL2012‐3245

Climatic niche differences among Zootoca vivipara clades with different parity modes: implications for the evolution and maintenance of viviparity

Parity mode (oviparity/viviparity) importantly affects the ecology, morphology, physiology, biogeography and evolution of organisms. The main hypotheses explaining the evolution and maintenance of viviparity are based on bioclimatic predictions and also state that the benefits of viviparity arise during the reproductive period. We identify the main climatic variables discriminating between viviparous and oviparous Eurasian common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) occurrence records during the reproductive period and over the entire year. Analyses based on the climates during the reproductive period show that viviparous clades inhabit sites with less variable temperature and precipitation. On the contrary, analyses based on the annual climates show that viviparous clades inhabit sites with more variable temperatures. Results from models using climates during reproduction are in line with the “selfish-mother hypothesis”, which can explain the success of viviparity, the maintenance of the two reproductive modes, and why viviparous individuals cannot colonize sites inhabited by oviparous ones (and vice versa). They suggest that during the reproductive period viviparity has an adaptive advantage over oviparity in less risky habitats thanks to the selfish behaviour of the mothers. Moreover, the results from both analyses stress that hypotheses about the evolution and maintenance of viviparity need to be tested during the reproductive period

Evolution of limpet assemblages driven by environmental changes and harvesting in North Iberia

M.M.-C. holds a National Spanish Grant (reference AP-2010-5211) and P.T. holds a grant from Plan de Ciencia Tecnología e Innovación-Programa Regional de Asturias RTD (reference BP08-077). This work was supported by the Spanish project CGL2009-08279.Two limpet species, Patella depressa and P. vulgata, are the most accessible molluscs in the upper intertidal shore on the coast of Asturias (Northern Spain) and have been consumed by humans for thousands of years, with evidence of harvesting-driven directional selection for size since the Palaeolithic. These 2 species are also highly sensitive to environmental conditions, P. depressa being in expansion under the current warming conditions. Our coalescent analyses of mitochondrial DNA suggest that both species are currently in a process of slow decline in population growth after experiencing a recent bottleneck, presumably enhanced by human exploitation. Over a wider temporal scale, the evolution of these species in Asturias seems associated with climate change, which seems to have driven their expansion across the studied zone. Current differential compositions of Patella assemblages associated with short-term differences in temperature on North Iberian coasts are consistent with the preferred conditions for each species. Human exploitation may have contributed to the most recent changes in limpet population diversity and morphology (size) at a short temporal scale, whilst climate would have caused long-term changes and would be responsible for most of their present population distribution.Depto. de Genética, Fisiología y MicrobiologíaFac. de Ciencias BiológicasTRUEpu

An evaluation of errors in the mitochondrial COI sequences of Hydrachnidia (Acari, Parasitengona) in public databases

Public molecular databases are fundamental tools for modern taxonomic studies whose usefulness rely on the soundness of the data within them. Here, we study potential errors that can arise along the data pipeline from sampling, specimen identifcation and molecular processing (digestion, amplifcation and sequencing) to the submission of sequences to these databases by using the DNA sequences of Hydrachnidia (Acari, Parasitengona) as a case study. Our results indicate that molecular information is available for only about 3% of the Hydrachnidia species known to date; yet, within this small percentage, errors are present in almost 5% of the species analyzed (0.5% of the sequences and almost 11% of the genera). This study underscores the scarcity of genetic data available for Hydrachnidia, but also that the proportion of errors in DNA sequences is relatively small. Even so, it highlights the danger associated with using DNA sequences from public databases, particularly for species identifcation, and reinforces the need for greater quality control measures and/ or protocols to avoid an intensifcation of errors in the (post) genomics era. Finally, our study emphasizes that potential errors may also reveal cryptic diversity within a species