Abstract
Asexual reproduction lacks genetic diversity but is predicted to be advantageous for dispersal and for increasing abundance relative to sexual reproduction. The oceanic Ogasawara Islands are inhabited by two gecko species, the asexual (parthenogenetic) all-female Lepidodactylus lugubris and the sexually reproductive Hemidactylus frenatus. This situation offers a unique opportunity to examine the relationships among sexuality and the abundance, distribution, and genetic diversity of the two species. A total of 445 geckos were collected across nine islands, and the population genetic structure of both species was estimated using microsatellite markers. Lepidodactylus lugubris was collected on all nine islands and consisted of two widely distributed clones: one diploid and the other triploid. In contrast, H. frenatus was limited to four islands and exhibited variation in population genetic structure among islands, with some bottleneck effects. Successful dispersal may be more frequent in L. lugubris than in H. frenatus; therefore, the asexual reproductive strategy of L. lugubris appears to have contributed to its dispersal success and increased abundance among the small oceanic islands. However, the absence of H. frenatus on islands not inhabited by humans may be partially explained by their different microhabitat preferences, as H. frenatus collection sites were relatively more confined to artificial substrates in towns and along roadways compared to L. lugubris. Moreover, the colonization histories of these two geckos have not yet been assessed; therefore, further study is needed to confirm the effects of sexuality on the population dynamics of these species.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Hidetoshi Ota and Mamoru Toda for providing relevant information and literature on Lepidodactylus lugubris, and Naoki Kachi, Hidetoshi Kato, Takeshi Osawa, Syuntaro Hiradate, Kosei Hashimoto, Suguru Wakikaido, Ai Takaoka, Akinobu Imamura, and Masahide Kubota for their help with field work. Samples were collected from protected areas with permission of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan.
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Table S1 Allele frequencies in five microsatellite loci of Hemidactylus frenatus on four Ogasawara islands. N = number of individuals sampled, N A = number of alleles, H O = observed heterozygosity, H E = expected heterozygosity. Frequencies on the northern, central, and southern parts of Chichijima and Hahajima are also shown separately (see Fig. 3).
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Murakami, Y., Sugawara, H., Takahashi, H. et al. Population genetic structure and distribution patterns of sexual and asexual gecko species in the Ogasawara Islands. Ecol Res 30, 471–478 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-015-1246-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-015-1246-6