Landscape genetics in the subterranean rodent Ctenomys chasiquensis associated with highly disturbed habitats from the southeastern Pampas region, Argentina

MORA MATÍAS; MAPELLI FERNANDO; LOPEZ ALDANA; GÓMEZ FERNÁNDEZ JIMENA; MIROL PATRICIA; KITTLEIN MARCELO

GENETICA

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2017 vol. 145 p. 575 - 591

0016-6707

Studies of genetic differentiation in fragmentedenvironments help us to identify those landscape featuresthat most affect gene flow and dispersal patterns. Particularly,the assessment of the relative significance of intrinsicbiological and environmental factors affecting the geneticstructure of populations becomes crucial. In this work, weassess the current dispersal patterns and population structureof Ctenomys ?chasiquensis?, a vulnerable and endemicsubterranean rodent distributed on a small area in CentralArgentina, using 9 polymorphic microsatellite loci. We uselandscape genetics approaches to assess the relationshipbetween genetic connectivity among populations and environmentalattributes. Our analyses show that populationsof C. ?chasiquensis? are moderately to highly structured ata regional level. This pattern is most likely the outcome ofsubstantial gene flow on the more homogeneous sand dunehabitat of the Northwest of its distributional range, in conjunctionwith an important degree of isolation of easternand southwestern populations, where the optimal habitat issurrounded by a highly fragmented landscape. Landscapegenetics analysis suggests that habitat quality and longitudewere the environmental factors most strongly associatedwith genetic differentiation/uniqueness of populations. Inconclusion, our results indicate an important genetic structurein this species, even at a small spatial scale, suggestingthat contemporary habitat fragmentation increases populationdifferentiation.