INVESTIGADORES
CALCATERRA Luis Alberto
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Genetically Differentiated Populations of Invasive Tawny Crazy Ant Detected Across Their Geographic Distribution in the US
Autor/es:
JOCELYN R. HOLT; JAMES MONTOYA LERMA; CALCATERRA, LUIS ALBERTO; TYLER J. RASZIC; RAUL F. MEDINA
Lugar:
Cleveland
Reunión:
Encuentro; Evolution 2022; 2022
Institución organizadora:
American Society of Naturalists, Society for the Study of Evolution, Society of Systemarics Biologists
Resumen:
The tawny crazy ant (TCA), Nylanderia fulva Mayr, which is native to South America, was first reported in the continental United States (US) in 1931. However, this ant species became a serious pest in the 1990s in Florida and in the 2000s in Texas. TCAs are currently an invasive pest in six US states (i.e., Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida), where their invasion success is attributed in part to their unicolonial social organization, omnivorous diet and its capacity to detoxify venom by competitor ants. A limited number of broad-scale molecular markers (e.g., COI, EF1-F1, EF1-F2, CAD, and microsatellites) have shown little genetic differentiation among TCA populations across their geographic distribution in the US. We anticipated that the thousands of SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) generated with High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) would provide a greater resolution on the population genetics of TCAs across its geographic distribution in the US. In addition, TCAs collected from South America (Argentina, Colombia, and Peru) allowed us to assess whether there was a common invasive genotype. Individual ants collected from different geographic locations within the US, as well as South America, were extracted for genomic material. Data was filtered with the STACKS pipeline and STRUCTURE was run to detect genetic differentiation. Our results identified fine-scale genetic variation among populations in different geographic locations within the US. While recently introduced populations are often considered genetically similar, increasing the number of markers used in population genetics studies allows for the detection of fine-scale genetic variation that may otherwise go undetected. This information can help improve pest management approaches that may work for some pest genotypes, but may be less effective for others.