Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Microsatellite variation in Rufous Hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) and evidence for a weakly structured population

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Ornithology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) population is declining in some areas of North America, but not in others. The reasons for the decline are, as yet, unknown. Understanding the genetic population structure of this species could be useful in understanding its dispersal behaviour and whether particular geographical areas should be treated as separate conservation units. We tested 16 microsatellite markers designed for other hummingbird species for amplification in Rufous Hummingbirds. Using six polymorphic markers, we found that the Rufous Hummingbird population was weakly structured such that birds breeding in central British Columbia could be distinguished from those breeding on Vancouver Island and those in Alberta, each several hundred kilometres away. Whether landscape features such as the Rocky Mountains and Fraser River Valley significantly affect dispersal patterns requires further investigation.

Zusammenfassung

Genetische Variabilität und Struktur bei der Rotrücken-Zimtelfe

Die Rotrücken-Zimtelfe (Selasphorus rufus), eine Kolibriart in Nordamerika, nimmt in manchen Gebieten ab, in anderen jedoch nicht. Die Ursachen des Bestandsrückgangs sind bisher jedoch weitgehend unbekannt. Um entsprechende Schutzstrategien für die einzelnen Populationen gezielt entwickeln zu können, ist ein besseres Verständnis der genetischen Struktur und damit der Wanderbewegungen zwischen den einzelnen Populationen notwendig. Insgesamt wurden in dieser Arbeit 16 Mikrosatellitenmarker anderer Kolibriarten getestet und auf ihre artspezifische Eignung hin überprüft. Sechs polymorphe Marker konnten erfolgreich für die Analysen bei S. rufus etabliert werden. Die Populationen zeigten nur geringe genetische Unterschiede, Individuen aus Vancover Island, British Columbia, und Alberta ließen sich jedoch unterscheiden. Welche Rolle Bergzüge wie die Rocky Mountains oder Täler wie das Fraser River Valley für das Dispersal der Art hat, sollte in zukünftigen Studien genauer analysiert werden.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aebischer NJ, Potts GR (1994) Quail Coturnix coturnix. Birdlife International, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Alcaide M, Serrano D, Tella JL, Negro JJ (2009) Strong philopatry derived from capture-recapture records does not lead to fine-scale genetic differentiation in lesser kestrels. J Anim Ecol 78:468–475

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Avise JC, Walker D (1998) Pleistocene phylogeographic effects on avian populations and the speciation process. Proc R Soc Lond B 265:457–463

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Clark RG, Hobson KA, Nichols JD, Bearhop S (2004) Avian dispersal and demography: scaling up to the landscape and beyond. Condor 106:717–719

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corander J, Marttinen P (2006) Bayesian identification of admixture events using multilocus molecular markers. Mol Ecol 15:2833–2843

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Corander J, Waldmann P, Marttinen P, Sillanpaa MJ (2004) BAPs 2: enhanced possibilities for the analysis of genetic population structure. Bioinformatics 20:2363–2369

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Corander J, Marttinen P, Mantyniemi S (2006) A Bayesian method for identification of stock mixtures from molecular marker data. Fish Bull 104:550–558

    Google Scholar 

  • Esler D, Iverson SA, Rizzolo DJ (2006) Genetic and demographic criteria for defining population units for conservation: the value of clear messages. Condor 108:480–483

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Excoffier L, Smouse P, Quattro J (1992) Analysis of molecular variance inferred from metric distances among DNA haplotypes: applications to human mitochondrial DNA restriction data. Genetics 131:479–491

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Falush D, Stephens M, Pritchard JK (2007) Inference of population structure using multilocus genotype data: dominant markers and null alleles. Mol Ecol Notes 7:574–578

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Finlay JC (2007) Nine years of banding and recapture of hummingbirds in Southern British Columbia. Br Columbia Birds 15:9–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Gagneux P, Boesch C, Woodruff DS (1997) Microsatellite scoring errors associated with noninvasive genotyping based on nuclear DNA amplified from shed hair. Mol Ecol 6:861–868

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gerloff U, Schlotterer C, Rassmann K, Rambold I, Hohmann G, Fruth B, Tautz D (1995) Amplification of hypervariable simple sequence repeats (microsatellites) from excremental DNA of wild living bonobos (Pan-paniscus). Mol Ecol 4:515–518

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Glenn TC, Schable NA (2005) Isolating microsatellite DNA loci. Methods Enzymol 395:202–222

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Guillot G, Estoup A, Mortier F, Cosson JF (2005) A spatial statistical model for landscape genetics. Genetics 170:1261–1280

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Guo SW, Thompson EA (1992) Performing the exact test of Hardy–Weinberg proportion for multiple alleles. Biometrics 48:361–372

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Healy SD, Calder WA (2006) Rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus). In: Pool A (ed) The birds of North America online. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubisz MJ, Falush D, Stephens M, Pritchard JK (2009) Inferring weak population structure with the assistance of sample group information. Mol Ecol Res 9(5):1322–1332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalinowski ST (2005) Do polymorphic loci require large sample sizes to estimate genetic distances? Heredity 94:33–36

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Latch EK, Dharmarajan G, Glaubitz JC, Rhodes OE (2006) Relative performance of Bayesian clustering software for inferring population substructure and individual assignment at low levels of population differentiation. Conserv Genet 7:295–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall TC, Kruuk LEB, Pemberton JM (1998) Statistical confidence for likelihood-based paternity inference in natural populations. Mol Ecol 7:639–655

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Milot E, Gibbs HL, Hobson KA (2000) Phylogeography and genetic structure of northern populations of yellow warbler (Dendroica petechia). Mol Ecol 9(6):667–681

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Navidi W, Arnheim N, Waterman MS (1992) A multiple-tubes approach for accurate genotyping of very small DNA samples by using pcr—statistical considerations. Am J Hum Genet 50:347–359

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Newton I (2008) The migration ecology of birds. Academic Press, Oxford, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Oyler-McCance SJ, Fike JA, Talley-Farnham T, Engelman T, Engelman F (2011) Characterization of ten microsatellite loci in the Broad-tailed Hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus). Conserv Genet Res 3:351–353

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker PG, Snow AA, Schug MD, Booton GC, Fuerst PA (1998) What molecules can tell us about populations: choosing and using a molecular marker. Ecology 79:361–382

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearce JM, Talbot SL (2006) Demography, genetics, and the value of mixed messages. Condor 108:474–479

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pritchard JK, Stephens M, Donnelly P (2000) Inference of population structure using multilocus genotype data. Genetics 155:945–959

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rohwer S, Hobson KA, Rohwer VG (2009) Migratory double breeding in Neotropical migrant birds. Proc Natl Acad Sci 106:19050–19055

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ruegg K (2007) Divergence between subspecies groups of Swainson’s thrush (Catharus ustulatus ustulatus) and C. U. swainsoni. Ornithol Monogr 63:67–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sauer JR, Hines JE, Fallon J (2008) The North American breeding bird survey, results and analysis 1966–2007. Version 5.15.2008 USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD. http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/bbs.html

  • Schneider S, Roessli D, Excoffier L (2000) Arlequin v.2.000: a software for population genetics analysis. Genetics and Biometry Laboratory, University of Geneva, Switzerland

  • Segelbacher G (2002) Noninvasive genetic analysis in birds: testing reliability of feather samples. Mol Ecol Notes 2:367–369

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Selkoe KA, Toonen RJ (2006) Microsatellites for ecologist: a practical guide to using and evaluating microsatellite markers. Ecol Lett 9(5):615–629

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Taberlet P, Griffin S, Goossens B, Questiau S, Manceau V, Escaravage N, Waits LP, Bouvet J (1996) Reliable genotyping of samples with very low DNA quantities using PCR. Nucleic Acids Res 24:3189–3194

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Walters JR (2000) Dispersal behavior: an ornithological frontier. Condor 102:479–481

    Google Scholar 

  • Weir BS, Cockerham CC (1984) Estimating F-statistics for the analysis of population structure. Evolution 38:1358–1370

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williamson SL (2001) Hummingbirds of North America. Houghton Mifflin, Boston

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Financial support was provided by NERC and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. We thank Cam Finlay and members of the British Columbia Hummingbird banding network for collecting samples, Jonathan Moran for sharing samples with us, Judith St John and Sara Oyler-McCance for the use of their primers and Jaime Garcia-Moreno for his support and for providing the samples of Lampornis amethystinus that G.S. used to developed the six loci for that species which we have subsequently tested in Selasphorus rufus.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Ida E. Bailey

    Present address: School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, UK

    Ida E. Bailey & Josephine M. Pemberton

  2. Department of Wildlife Ecology and Management, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Tennenbacher Straße 4, 79106, Freiburg, Germany

    Gernot Segelbacher

  3. School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK

    Susan D. Healy

  4. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, AB, T1K 3M4, Canada

    T. Andrew Hurly

Authors
  1. Ida E. Bailey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gernot Segelbacher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Susan D. Healy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. T. Andrew Hurly
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Josephine M. Pemberton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ida E. Bailey.

Additional information

Communicated by M. Wink.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bailey, I.E., Segelbacher, G., Healy, S.D. et al. Microsatellite variation in Rufous Hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) and evidence for a weakly structured population. J Ornithol 154, 1029–1037 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-013-0971-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-013-0971-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation