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Bioindicator snake shows genomic signatures of natural and anthropogenic barriers to gene flow
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Public Library of Science, 2021, 16 (10), pp.e0259124. ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0259124⟩, PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 10, p e0259124 (2021), PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 10 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- HAL CCSD, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Urbanisation alters landscapes, introduces wildlife to novel stressors, and fragments habitats into remnant ‘islands’. Within these islands, isolated wildlife populations can experience genetic drift and subsequently suffer from inbreeding depression and reduced adaptive potential. The Western tiger snake (Notechis scutatus occidentalis) is a predator of wetlands in the Swan Coastal Plain, a unique bioregion that has suffered substantial degradation through the development of the city of Perth, Western Australia. Within the urban matrix, tiger snakes now only persist in a handful of wetlands where they are known to bioaccumulate a suite of contaminants, and have recently been suggested as a relevant bioindicator of ecosystem health. Here, we used genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data to explore the contemporary population genomics of seven tiger snake populations across the urban matrix. Specifically, we used population genomic structure and diversity, effective population sizes (Ne), and heterozygosity-fitness correlations to assess fitness of each population with respect to urbanisation. We found that population genomic structure was strongest across the northern and southern sides of a major river system, with the northern cluster of populations exhibiting lower heterozygosities than the southern cluster, likely due to a lack of historical gene flow. We also observed an increasing signal of inbreeding and genetic drift with increasing geographic isolation due to urbanisation. Effective population sizes (Ne) at most sites were small (< 100), with Ne appearing to reflect the area of available habitat rather than the degree of adjacent urbanisation. This suggests that ecosystem management and restoration may be the best method to buffer the further loss of genetic diversity in urban wetlands. If tiger snake populations continue to decline in urban areas, our results provide a baseline measure of genomic diversity, as well as highlighting which ‘islands’ of habitat are most in need of management and protection.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Topography
Heredity
[SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]
Marine and Aquatic Sciences
01 natural sciences
Population genomics
Effective population size
Inbreeding depression
Inbreeding
Elapidae
Reptile Genomics
Islands
0303 health sciences
Ecosystem health
education.field_of_study
Heterozygosity
Multidisciplinary
Ecology
Environmental Biomarkers
biology
Eukaryota
Snakes
Genomics
Squamates
Geography
Vertebrates
Medicine
Research Article
Freshwater Environments
Conservation of Natural Resources
Ecological Metrics
Science
Population
010603 evolutionary biology
03 medical and health sciences
Genetic drift
Genetics
Animals
education
030304 developmental biology
Landforms
Evolutionary Biology
Population Biology
Tiger
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Genetic Drift
Notechis scutatus
Organisms
Biology and Life Sciences
Reptiles
Aquatic Environments
Genetic Variation
Geomorphology
Species Diversity
Western Australia
15. Life on land
biology.organism_classification
Genetics, Population
Animal Genomics
Wetlands
Amniotes
Earth Sciences
Zoology
Population Genetics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Public Library of Science, 2021, 16 (10), pp.e0259124. ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0259124⟩, PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 10, p e0259124 (2021), PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 10 (2021)
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....5e3a18b1962d7595b403da50bd318fd3