Lack of variation at phosphoglucose isomerase (pgi) in bumblebees: implications for conservation genetics studies

Assessing genetic variation underlying ecologically important traits is increasingly of interest and importance in population and conservation genetics. For some groups generally useful markers exist for examining the relative role of selection and drift in shaping genetic diversity e.g. the major h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-06, Vol.8 (6), p.e65600
Main Authors: Ellis, Jonathan S, Turner, Lucy M, Knight, Mairi E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino Acid Substitution
Animals
Apidae
Apis mellifera
Bees
Bees - enzymology
Bees - genetics
Biology
Bombus
Bombus lapidarius
Bombus pascuorum
Bumblebees
Conservation
Conservation genetics
Conservation of Natural Resources
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Drosophila
Ecological monitoring
Enzymes
Genetic aspects
Genetic diversity
Genetic Loci - genetics
Genetic Variation
Genetics
Glucose-6-Phosphate Isomerase - genetics
Haplotypes
Hymenoptera
Incompatibility
Insects
Invertebrates
Loci
Major histocompatibility complex
Microclimate
Microclimates
Myopus schisticolor
Phosphoglucose isomerase
Population genetics
RNA, Messenger - genetics
RNA, Messenger - metabolism
Self-incompatibility
Thermal stability
Variation
Vertebrates
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Summary:Assessing genetic variation underlying ecologically important traits is increasingly of interest and importance in population and conservation genetics. For some groups generally useful markers exist for examining the relative role of selection and drift in shaping genetic diversity e.g. the major histocompatibility complex in vertebrates and self-incompatibility loci in plants. For invertebrates there is no such generally useful locus. However, phosphoglucose isomerase (Pgi) has been proposed as a useful functional marker in the conservation genetics of invertebrates. Where thermal microclimate varies, balanced polymorphisms may be maintained due to trade-offs between thermally stable and kinetically advantageous allelic forms. We here report very low levels of Pgi variation in bumblebees rendering this locus to be of little use as an adaptive marker in a conservation genetics context in this group. Potential explanations for this lack of variation are considered.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0065600