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Rapid evolutionary responses in a translocated population of intertidal snail (Bembicium vittatum) utilise variation from different source populations

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Abstract

The artificial movement of individuals between populations (translocation) can be an effective way to increase genetic diversity within populations, but few studies have undertaken long term genetic monitoring to determine if variation introduced by translocation is maintained over many generations or whether it can be used to adapt to local conditions. Here, we report on the changes in morphological and molecular variation over a 12-year period in a population of an intertidal littorine snail (Bembicium vittatum) that was created by mixing individuals from three geographically disjunct populations. These source populations differ genetically in shell shape and in allele frequency at several allozyme loci. We found that the translocated population had higher allozyme diversity than any of the source populations and that this pattern was maintained over multiple generations. Variation in shell shape also increased, but this declined over time as shells became taller. Some allozyme loci also showed significant changes in frequency over time. These changes were not consistently towards the genetic makeup of a single source population, and in the case of shell shape, were towards a phenotype that was most suited to the local environment. Our results suggest that genetic variation introduced into a population by translocation can be rapidly incorporated and used to adapt to local conditions without domination by a single source population’s genome. However, more studies are needed before generalisations on the benefits of mixing individuals from disjunct populations can be made.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council and a University of Western Australia postdoctoral fellowship awarded to W.J.K. We thank Dr Karen Parsons for providing the pre-2005 samples and details of the establishment of the Fremantle population. We also thank members of the population genetics group and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.

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  1. School of Animal Biology (M092), The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Rachel M. Binks, W. Jason Kennington & Michael S. Johnson

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  1. Rachel M. Binks
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  2. W. Jason Kennington
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  3. Michael S. Johnson
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Correspondence to W. Jason Kennington.

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Binks, R.M., Kennington, W.J. & Johnson, M.S. Rapid evolutionary responses in a translocated population of intertidal snail (Bembicium vittatum) utilise variation from different source populations. Conserv Genet 8, 1421–1429 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-007-9293-3

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