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Demographic history and genetic diversity in West Indian Coereba flaveola populations

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Abstract

The bananaquit (Coereba flaveola) has been well studied throughout the Caribbean region from a phylogenetic perspective. However, data concerning the population genetics and long-term demography of this bird species are lacking. In this study, we focused on three populations within the Lesser Antilles and one on Puerto Rico and assessed genetic and demographic processes, using five nuclear and two mitochondrial markers. We found that genetic diversity of bananaquits on Puerto Rico exceeds that on the smaller islands (Dominica, Guadeloupe and Grenada); this might reflect either successive founder events from Puerto Rico to Grenada, or more rapid drift in smaller populations subsequent to colonization. Population growth rate estimates showed no evidence of rapid expansion and migration was indicated only between populations from the closest islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe. Overall, our results suggest that a “demographic fission” model, considering only mutation and drift, but without migration, can be applied to these bananaquit populations in the West Indies.

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Acknowledgments

This work was conducted at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama and supported by the Smithsonian Institution James Bond Restricted Endowment. Research by E. Bermingham and RER on West Indian birds has been supported by the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution. We are grateful to L. Garcia, M. Gonzalez and C. Vergara for technical support in the laboratory. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and their constructive suggestions to the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama

    Eva Bellemain & Eldredge Bermingham

  2. Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, UMR CNRS 5553, Université de Grenoble I, BP 53, 38041, Grenoble Cedex 9, France

    Oscar E. Gaggiotti

  3. Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Anna Fahey

  4. Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St Louis, Saint Louis, MO, 63121, USA

    Robert E. Ricklefs

  5. Spygen, 12 allée du Lac de garde, Bâtiment House Boat no. 7, Savoie Technolac, BP 274, 73375, Le Bourget du Lac Cedex, France

    Eva Bellemain

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  1. Eva Bellemain
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  2. Oscar E. Gaggiotti
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  3. Anna Fahey
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  4. Eldredge Bermingham
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  5. Robert E. Ricklefs
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Correspondence to Eva Bellemain.

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Bellemain, E., Gaggiotti, O.E., Fahey, A. et al. Demographic history and genetic diversity in West Indian Coereba flaveola populations. Genetica 140, 137–148 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-012-9665-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-012-9665-6

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