Abstract
Rapid decline of population size often gives rise to loss of genetic variation and may result in a reduction in fitness. It is, therefore, essential to detect past demographic changes in populations of endangered species. Aricia artaxerxes occurs in two regions of Northern Hungary: Bükk Mts. and the Aggtelek Karst region. The species prefers short-grass habitats, which are subject to succession. Due to climatic differences between the two regions succession is more rapid in the Bükk plateau resulting in the decline and isolation of A. artaxerxes populations there. In contrast, most populations have remained rather large and stable in the Karst region. This situation provides an excellent possibility to compare the genetic composition of stable and declining populations. A. artaxerxes was collected in four populations of the Bükk Mountains and in ten in the Aggtelek Karst region in 2002 and 2005. We analysed 19 polymorphic allozyme loci in all samples. The results revealed an extremely high level of enzyme polymorphism in A. artaxerxes. Most parameters of polymorphism proved to be significantly higher in the Karst region compared to the Bükk. The shape of the distribution of alleles among the frequency classes indicated the effect of bottleneck in three Bükk and one Karst population. Though heterozygote excess was only significant in one Bükk population a tendency was observed for higher values of standardised heterozygote excess in those populations that had a typical bottleneck distribution of alleles. Our results clearly demonstrated that those populations/subpopulations that compose a network with intense migration are able to maintain their genetic diversity in a long run, while the isolated small populations of the Bükk plateau have lost a sizeable part of their variation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aagaard K, Hindar K, Pullin AS, James CH, Hammarstedt O, Balstad T, Hanssen O (2002) Phylogenetic relationships in brown Argus butterflies (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Aricia) from northwestern Europe. Biol J Linn Soc 75:27–37
Allendorf FW, Luikart G (2006) Conservation and the genetics of populations. Blackwell, Malden
Amos W, Balmford A (2001) When does conservation genetics matter? Heredity 87:257–265
Brookes MI, Graneau YA, King P, Rose OC, Thomas CD, Mallet JLB (1997) Genetic analysis of founder bottlenecks in the rare British butterfly Plebejus argus. Conserv Biol 11:648–661
Cornuet JM, Luikart G (1996) Description and power analysis of two tests for detecting recent population bottlenecks from allele frequency data. Genetics 144:2001–2014
Cristescu R, Sherwin WB, Handasyde K, Cahill V, Cooper DW (2010) Detecting bottlenecks using BOTTLENECK 1.2.02 in wild populations: the importance of the microsatellite structure. Conserv Genet 11:1043–1049
England PR, Osler GHR, Woodworth LM, Montgomery ME, Briscoe DA, Frankham R (2003) Effects of intense versus diffuse population bottlenecks on microsatellite genetic diversity and evolutionary potential. Conserv Genet 4:595–604
Frankham R, Ballou JD, Briscoe DA (2002) Introduction to conservation genetics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Garza JC, Williamson EG (2001) Detection of reduction in population size using data from microsatellite loci. Mol Ecol 10:305–318
Goudet J (1995) FSTAT (version 1.2): a computer program to calculate F-statistics. J Hered 86:485–486
Habel JC, Schmitt T (2009) The genetic consequences of different dispersal behaviours in Lycaenid butterfly species. Bull Entomol Res 99:513–523
Habel JC, Schmitt T (2012) The burden of genetic diversity. Biol Conserv 147:270–274
Habel JC, Engler JO, Rödder D, Schmitt T (2012) Contrasting genetic and morphologic responses on recent population decline in two burnet moths (Lepidoptera, Zygaenidae). Conserv Genet 13:1293–1304
Hurlbert SH (1971) The nonconcept of species diversity: a critique and alternative parameters. Ecology 52:577–586
Keyser RD, Shreeve TG, Breuker CJ, Hails RS, Schmitt T (2012) Polyommatus icarus butterflies in the British Isles: evidence for a bottleneck. Biol J Linn Soc 107:123–136
Lacy RC (1997) Importance of genetic variation to the viability of mammalian populations. J Mammal 78:320–335
Lande R (1988) Genetics and demography in biological conservation. Science 241:1455–1460
Larson S, Jameson R, Etnier M, Fleming M, Bentzen P (2002) Loss of genetic diversity in sea otters (Enhydra lutris) associated with the fur trade of the 18th and 19th centuries. Mol Ecol 11:1899–1903
Leberg PL (2002) Estimating allelic richness: effects of sample size and bottlenecks. Mol Ecol 11:2445–2449
Luikart G, Cornuet JM (1998) Empirical evaluation of a test for identifying recently bottlenecked populations from allele frequency data. Conserv Biol 12:228–237
Luikart G, Allendorf FW, Cornuet JM, Sherwin WB (1998) Distortion of allele frequency distributions provides a test for recent population bottlenecks. J Hered 89:238–247
Nyström V, Angerbjörn A, Dalén L (2006) Genetic consequences of a demographic bottleneck in the Scandinavian arctic fox. Oikos 114:84–94
Peakall ROD, Smouse PE (2006) Genalex 6: genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research. Mol Ecol Notes 6:288–295
Pecsenye K, Bereczki J, Szilágyi M, Varga Z (2007) High level of genetic variation in Aricia artaxerxes issekutzi (Lycaenidae) populations in Northern Hungary. Nota Lepidopterol 30:225–234
Pertoldi C, Hansen MM, Loeschcke V, Madsen AB, Jacobsen L, Baagoe H (2001) Genetic consequences of population decline in the European otter (Lutra lutra): an assessment of microsatellite DNA variation in Danish otters from 1883 to 1993. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol 268:1775–1781
Piry S, Luikart G, Cornuet JM (1999) Computer note. BOTTLENECK: a computer program for detecting recent reductions in the effective size using allele frequency data. J Hered 90:502–503
R Development Core Team (2008) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Austria, Bécs. http://www.R-project.org
Schmitt T, Seitz A (2001) Allozyme variation in Polyommatus coridon (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): identification of ice-age refugia and reconstruction of post-glacial expansion. J Biogeogr 28:1129–1136
Schmitt T, Seitz A (2002) Influence of habitat fragmentation on the genetic structure of Polyommatus coridon (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): implications for conservation. Biol Conserv 107:291–297
Schmitt T, Gießl A, Seitz A (2002) Postglacial colonisation of western Central Europe by Polyommatus coridon (Poda 1761) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): evidence from population genetics. Heredity 88:26–34
Schmitt T, Gießl A, Seitz A (2003) Did Polyommatus icarus (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) have distinct glacial refugia in southern Europe? Evidence from population genetics. Biol J Linn Soc 80:529–538
Thomas CD, Hill JK, Lewis OT (1998) Evolutionary consequences of habitat fragmentation in a localized butterfly. J Anim Ecol 67:485–497
Varga Z (1968) Bemerkungen und Ergänzungen zur taxonomischen Beurteilung und Ökologie der im Karpatenbecken vorkommenden Populationen von Aricia artaxerxes Fabr. (=A. allous G.-Hb., A. montensis Vrty, Lep Lycaenidae. Acta Biol Debr 6:171–185
Whitehouse AM, Harley EH (2001) Post-bottleneck genetic diversity of elephant populations in South Africa, revealed using microsatellite analysis. Mol Ecol 10:2139–2149
Whiteley A, Hastings K, Wenburg J, Frissell C, Martin J, Allendorf F (2010) Genetic variation and effective population size in isolated populations of coastal cutthroat trout. Conserv Genet 11:1929–1943
Acknowledgments
The study was supported by the OTKA T046612, NKFP-3 B/023/2004 and OTKA K84071 project. The technical assistance of V. Mester in the electrophoretic work is very much respected. The helpful criticism of the reviewers J. C. Habel and T. Schmitt are greatly valued. We thank for the useful comments to Z. Végvári. The support of the Nature Conservation Authorities of Hungary and especially the cooperativeness of the Aggtelek and Bükk National Park Directions are highly appreciated.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pecsenye, K., Rácz, R., Bereczki, J. et al. Loss of genetic variation in declining populations of Aricia artaxerxes in Northern Hungary. J Insect Conserv 18, 233–243 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-014-9634-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-014-9634-8