Brazilian native meliponines are currently threatened by increased human impacts. The assessment of their genetic variation by microsatellite DNA markers can assist in the conservation of populations and help in the planning and establishment of efficient management strategies. The purpose of this study was to develop the first set of microsatellite markers for Melipona fasciculata, selected from partial genome assembly of Illumina paired-end reads. Primer pairs were designed for each detected locus at their flanking regions. Bee samples were genotyped from two different populations of Northeastern Brazil for marker characterization and validation. A total of 17 microsatellite loci displayed polymorphism. Mean HE and HO heterozygosities were 0.453 and 0.536, respectively. PIC across all loci ranged from 0.108 to 0.714. A genetic diversity analysis revealed high values for population differentiation estimates (FST = 0.194, RST = 0.230, and Dest = 0.162) within the investigated region. PCoA and Bayesian clustering showed a separation of the species into two distinct clusters. These microsatellite markers have demonstrated strong potential for population-level genetic studies. Moreover, the preliminary analysis of the genetic diversity in M. fasciculata provides provisional evidence of significant population differentiation between the two studied populations., Geice Ribeiro Da Silva, Isis Gomes De Brito Souza, Fabia De Mello Pereira, Bruno De Almeida Souza, Maria Teresa Do Rego Lopes, Paul Bentzen, Fabio Mendonça Diniz., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Tapinoma melanocephalum is a worldwide distributed, highly invasive ant species. It lives in close association with human societies and its distribution is human-mediated in large measure. The geographical origin of this ant species is unknown, but its introduction in areas previously devoided of its presence can represent a threat to the native biota, act as an agricultural pest or as a pathogen vector. To investigate the genetic structure and phylogeography of this species we identified 12 new polymorphic microsatellite markers, and in addition, we tested and selected 12 ant-universal microsatellites polymorphic in T. melanocephalum. We genotyped 30 individuals from several islands of Micronesia and Papua-New Guinea. All 24 loci exhibited strong homozygosity excess (45-100%, mean = 86%), while the number of alleles per locus reached usual values (2-18, mean = 6.5), resulting in levels of expected heterozygosity much higher than observed. Based on several robust tests, we were able to exclude artefacts such as null alleles and allelic dropout as a possible cause of the observed pattern. Homozygosity excess might be a consequence of founder effect, bottleneck and/or inbreeding. As our sample population was composed of individuals from several distinct localities, the Wahlund effect might have contributed to the increased homozygosity as well. Despite the provisionally observed deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, the newly developed microsatellites will provide an effective tool for future genetic investigations of population structure as well as for the phylogeographic study of T. melanocephalum., Jan Zima Jr., Ophélie Lebrasseur, Michaela Borovanská, Milan Janda., and Obsahuje bibliografii