Genetic analysis of a novel invasion of Puerto Rico by an exotic constricting snake
- 856 Downloads
- 11 Citations
Abstract
The tropical island Puerto Rico is potentially vulnerable to invasion by some species of exotic snakes; however, until now no established populations had been reported. Here we report and genetically characterize the nascent invasion of Puerto Rico by an exotic constricting snake of the family Boidae (Boa constrictor) using mtDNA and microsatellite data. Over 150 individual B. constrictor have been removed from Mayagüez municipality since May 2011, and our results from the genetic analysis of 32 individuals suggest that this population was recently founded by individuals of one subspecies from a genetic lineage common to zoo and breeding collections, but that the potential propagule pool consists of two subspecies. We also suggest that anthropogenic long-distance dispersal within the island of Puerto Rico may be occurring from the established population, with implications for further establishment across the island. This study represents the first report of the naturalization of an invasive species of boid snake in Puerto Rico and will be important in determining mitigation strategies for this invasion as well as providing a basis for comparison to other on-going studies of invasive snakes.
Keywords
Boa constrictor Boidae Effective population size Genetic diversity Invasive species MicrosatelliteNotes
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to L. Figueroa and the staff of the Dr. Juan A. Rivero Zoo, and R. López, A. Atienza, and the rangers of the Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA) for access to captured boas. We also thank A.J. Torres, R. Arroyo, K. Ortiz, A. Robateau, C. del Río, C.D. Ríos, I. Ocasio, N. Martínez, M. Camacho, L. Maldonado, A.Z. Morales, K. Centeno, J. Rodríguez, C. Amarro, and M. Vega from the Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Areceibo for assistance with necropsy. All samples were collected under DRNA permit 2011-IC-043. Funding was provided by the University of Massachusetts, Boston and the U.S. Geological Survey. Finally, we thank W. Booth, S. Oyler-McCance, F. Kraus, and two anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments which greatly improved the manuscript. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Supplementary material
References
- Bomford M, Kraus F, Braysher M, Walter L, Brown L (2005) Risk assessment model for the import and keeping of exotic reptiles and amphibians. Gov. of Australia, Bureau of Rural Sciences, Canberra, ACTGoogle Scholar
- Booth W, Johnson DH, Moore S, Schal C, Vargo EL (2011) Evidence for viable, non-clonal but fatherless Boa constrictors. Biol Lett 7:253–256. doi: 10.1098/rsbl/2010.0793 PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Burbrink FT, Lawson R, Slowinski JB (2000) Mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of the polytypic north American rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta): a critique of the subspecies concept. Evolution 54:2107–2118PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Fitzpatrick BM, Fordyce JA, Niemiller ML, Reynolds RG (2012) What can DNA tell us about biological invasions? Biol Invasions 14:245–253. doi: 10.1007/s10530-011-0064-1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Gautschi B, Widmer A, Joshi J, Koella JC (2002) Increased frequency of scale anomalies and loss of genetic variation in serially bottlenecked populations of the dice snake, Natrix tessellata. Conserv Genet 3:235–245CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Guicking D, Griffiths RA, Moore RD, Joger U, Wink M (2006) Intorduced alien or persecuted native? Resolving the origin of the viperine snake (Natrix maura) on Mallorca. Biol Conserv 15:3045–3054. doi: 10.1007/s10531-005-4878-y Google Scholar
- Hedrick PW (2005) Genetics of populations, 3rd edn. Jones and Bartlett, Sudbury, MAGoogle Scholar
- Hill WG, Robertson A (1968) Linkage disequilibrium in finite populations. Theor Appl Genet 38:226–231CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Hynková I, Starostová Z, Frynta D (2009) Mitochondrial DNA variation reveals recent evolutionary history of main Boa constrictor clades. Zool Sci 26:623–631PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Kalinowski ST, Wagner AP, Taper ML (2006) ML-RELATE: a computer program for maximum-likelihood estimation of relatedness and relationship. Mol Ecol Notes 6:576–579. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-8286.2006.01256.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Larkin MA et al (2007) Clustal W and Clustal X version 2.0. Bioinformatics 23:2947–2948PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Loew SS, Williams DF, Ralls K, Pilgrim K, Fleischer RC (2005) Population structure and genetic variation in the endangered giant kangaroo rat (Dipodomys ingens). Conserv Genet 6:495–510CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Maddison WP, Maddison DR (2011) Mesquite: a modular system for evolutionary analysis. Version 2.75. http://mesquiteproject.org
- Mayer GC (2012) Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. In: Powell R, Henderson RW (eds) Island lists of West Indian amphibians and reptiles. Bull FL Mus Nat Hist 51: 85–166Google Scholar
- Ohta T, Kimura M (1969) Linkage disequilibrium due to random genetic drift. Genet Res 13:47–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Peakall R, Smouse PE (2006) Genalex 6: genetic analysis in excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research. Mol Ecol Notes 6:288–295. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-8286.2005.01155.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Posada D (2006) Model test server: a web-based tool for the statistical selection of models of nucleotide substitution online. Nucleic Acids Res 34:W700–W703. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkl042 PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Quick JS, Reinert HK, de Cuba ER, Odum RA (2005) Recent occurrence and dietary habits of Boa constrictor on Aruba, Dutch West Indies. J Herpetol 39:304–307. doi: 10.1670/45-04N CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Raymond M, Rousset F (1995) GenePop v1.2: population genetics software for exact test and ecumenicism. J Hered 86:248–249Google Scholar
- Reed RN, Rodda GH (2009) Giant constrictors: biological and management profiles and an establishment risk assessment for nine large species of pythons, anacondas, and the Boa constrictor. US Geological Survey Open-File Report 2009-1202 (USGS), Reston, VAGoogle Scholar
- Ronquist F et al (2012) MrBayes 3.2: efficient Bayesian phylogenetic inference and model choice across a large model space. Syst Biol. doi: 10.1093/sysbio/sys029 Google Scholar
- Snow RW, Krysko KL, Enge KM, Oberhofer L, Warren-Bradley A, Wilkins L (2007) Introduced populations of Boa constrictor (Boidae) and Python molurus bivittatus (Pythonidae) in southern Florida. In: Henderson RW, Powell R (eds) Biology of the boas and pythons. Eagle Mountain, Utah, pp 416–438Google Scholar
- Tzika AC, Remy C, Gibson R, Milinkovitch MC (2008) Molecular genetic analysis of a captive-breeding program: the vulnerable endemic Jamaican yellow boa. Conserv Genet 10:69–77. doi: 10.1007/s10592-008-9519-z CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- van Wilgen NC, Roura-Pascual N, Richardson DM (2009) A quantitative climate-match score for risk-assessment screening of reptile & amphibian introductions. Environ Manage 44:590–607. doi: 10.1007/s00267-009-9311-y PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Vázquez-Domínguez E, Suárez-Atilano M, Booth W, Gonzáles-Baca C, Cuarón AD (2012) Genetic evidence of a recent successful colonization of introduced species on islands: Boa constrictor imperator on Cozumel Island. Biol Invasions. doi: 10.1007/s10530-012-0217-x Google Scholar
- Waples RS (2006) A bias correction for estimates of effective population size based on linkage disequilibrium at unlinked loci. Conserv Genet 7:167–184. doi: 10.1007/s10592-005-9100-y CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Waples RS, Do C (2008) LDNE: a program for estimating effective population size from data on linkage disequilibrium. Mol Ecol Res 8:753–756. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-0998.2007.02061.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar