Genetic footprints of a rapid and large-scale range expansion: the case of cyclic common vole in Spain

• Main Authors: Domínguez, Julio C., Alda, Fernando, Calero-Riestra, María, Olea, Pedro P., Martínez-Padilla, Jesús, Herranz, Jesús, Oñate, Juan J., Santamaría, Ana Eugenia, Viñuela, Javier, García, Jesús T.
• Other Authors: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), European Commission, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (España), Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, Fundación BBVA, ARAID Foundation, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Transformación Digital (España), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Nature 2023
• Subjects: Martínez; Common vole; Microtus arvalis
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/340480; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-023-00613-w; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007480; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100010198; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003329; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100004837; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011698; https://doi.org/10.13039/100007406; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780

In the Anthropocene, many species are rapidly shifting their ranges in response to human-driven habitat modifications. Studying patterns and genetic signatures of range shifts helps to understand how species cope with environmental disturbances and predict future shifts in the face of global environmental change. We investigated the genetic signature of a contemporary wide-range expansion observed in the Iberian common vole Microtus arvalis asturianus shortly after a colonization event. We used mtDNA and microsatellite data to investigate patterns of genetic diversity, structure, demography, and gene flow across 57 localities covering the historical range of the species and the newly colonized area. The results showed a genetic footprint more compatible with a true range expansion (i.e. the colonization of previously unoccupied areas), than with a model of “colonization from within” (i.e. local expansions from small, unnoticed populations). Genetic diversity measures indicated that the source population was likely located at the NE of the historical range, with a declining gradient of genetic diversity towards the more recently invaded areas. At the expansion front, we observed the greatest gene flow and smallest pairwise differences between nearby localities. Both natural landscape features (rivers) and recent anthropogenic barriers (roads, railways) explained a large proportion of genetic variance among populations and had a significant impact on the colonization pathways used by voles. This work was supported by I + D National Plan Projects of the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (CGL2011-30274, CGL2015-71255-P, CGL2013-42451-P) co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, EU), and the Fundación BBVA Research Project TOPIGEPLA (2014 call). J Martínez-Padilla was funded by ARAID foundation and currently by Science and Education Ministry (PID2019-104835GB-100). Julio Domínguez was supported by a predoctoral grant: “Programa Talento Formación” funded by Fondo Social ...