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Gene variation and genetic differentiation among populations of the solitary mud dauber wasp Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) albitarse Fabricius 1804 (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae)

Abstract

Trypoxylon is a genus of solitary crabronid wasps whose population genetics is poorly known. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the genetic variation and differentiation among five populations of Trypoxylon albitarse, a species widely distributed throughout the Neotropics, with records from Panama to northern Argentina. Eight species-specific microsatellite loci were used for genotyping 96 adult wasps (one female per nest) sampled at five sites in Brazil. The analysis of allelic richness and private alleles indicated high genetic diversity in the populations sampled. Pairwise comparisons using the Fst and Dest indices revealed significant differentiation for all, but one pair of populations. Fst, Dest, AMOVA and assignment test values pointed to inter-population differentiation. Additionally, the analysis of population structure using Bayesian and PCA methods characterized two alternative genetic groups. The Mantel test indicated no correlation between genetic and geographic distances. Despite evidence of considerable dispersal capacity for T. albitarse, the data indicate low to moderate population structuring in this species.

Keywords:
population genetics; wasps; Crabronidae; SSR markers

Introduction

Among aculeate members of the order Hymenoptera, the family Crabronidae is a group of wasps that stands out for its worldwide distribution as well as for exhibiting a wide variety of nesting and foraging strategies. About 9,000 species have been described (Pulawski, 2014Pulawski WJ (2014) Catalog of Sphecidae sensu lato, http://research.calacademy.org/ent/catalog_sphecidae/16210 (September 9, 2014).
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) and most do not exhibit social organization (Melo, 2000Melo GAR (2000) Comportamento social em vespas da família Sphecidae (Hymenoptera, Apoidea). In: Martins RP, Lewinsohn TM and Barbeiros MS (eds) Ecologia e Comportamento de Insetos. Série Oecologia Brasiliensis, Vol. VIII. PPGE-UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, pp. 85-130.; O'Neill, 2001O'Neill KM (2001) Solitary Wasps: Natural History and Behavior. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 406 p.). Although some morphological studies have suggested that Crabronidae could form a monophyletic group, considered by some to be a sister group of Apidae (Lomholdt, 1982Lomholdt O (1982) On the origin of the bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Sphecidae). Entomol Scand 13:185-190.; Prentice, 1998Prentice MA (1998) The Comparative Morphology and Phylogeny of Apoid Wasps (Hymenoptera, Apoidea). Thesis, University of California.; Melo, 1999Melo GAR (1999) Phylogenetic relationships and classification of the major lineages of Apoidea (Hymenoptera), with emphasis on the crabronid wasps. Univ Kansas Sci Bull 14:1-55.; Michener, 2007Michener CD (2007) The Bees of the World. The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 953 p.), studies involving morphological (Alexander, 1992Alexander BA (1992) An exploratory analysis of cladistics relationships within the superfamily Apoidea, with special reference to sphecid wasps (Hymenoptera). J Hymenopt Res 1:25-61.) and molecular data (Lohrmann, et al., 2008Lohrmann V, Ohl M, Bleidorn C and Podsialowski L (2008) Phylogenie der “Sphecidae” (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) basierend auf molekularen daten. Mitt Dtsch Ges Allg Angew Entomol 16:99-102.; Debevec et al., 2012Debevec AH, Cardinal S and Danforth BN (2012) Identifying the sister group to the bees: A molecular phylogeny of Aculeata with an emphasis on the superfamily Apoidea. Zool Scripta 41:527-535.) suggest that Crabronidae may not be a monophyletic clade and that bees may have arisen within this group. Despite having an important position in the Apoidea phylogeny, genetic studies involving crabronid wasps are scarce.

Trypoxylon is the most diverse genus of the family Crabronidae, with about 634 described species, which have a worldwide geographical distribution (Pulawski, 2014Pulawski WJ (2014) Catalog of Sphecidae sensu lato, http://research.calacademy.org/ent/catalog_sphecidae/16210 (September 9, 2014).
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). Aspects of the natural history of these solitary hunter spider wasps are well known. However, the literature offers few reports addressing the population genetics of species of this genus or the other crabronid wasps using genetic markers. Until now, only allozyme markers were used to study the population genetics of Trypoxylon species; firstly, Trypoxylon albitarse and Trypoxylon rogenhoferi populations were studied by Peruquetti (2003)Peruquetti RC (2003) Aspectos da Biologia, Estrutura Populacional e Parentesco Intranidal em Vespas do Gênero Trypoxylon (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae). Thesis, Universidade Federal de São Carlos. and thereafter, Trypoxylon aurifrons, Trypoxylon nitidum and Trypoxylon lactitarse populations by Santoni (2008)Santoni MM (2008) Biologia de Nidificação e Estrutura Sociogenética Intranidal em Espécies de Trypoxylon (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Dissertation, Universidade Federal de São Carlos.. Despite the low level of heterozygosity of the markers employed, both authors found significant genetic differentiation among populations of these five species and suggested that this result would be due to a possible philopatry behavior of these wasps.

The solitary mud dauber Trypoxylon albitarse (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae) is widely distributed throughout the Neotropics, with records from Panama to northern Argentina, and is easily found on the walls of human constructions, such as buildings and bridges, especially if located near forested areas (Amarante, 1991Amarante STP (1991) Biologia e Comportamento Reprodutivo de Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) albitarse F. (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae). Dissertation, Universidade de São Paulo., 2002Amarante STP (2002) A synonymic catalog of the Neotropical Crabronidae and Sphecidae (Hymenoptera, Apoidea). Arq Zool 37:1-139.). Based on the low recapture rates of marked specimens during a behavioral study, Amarante (1991)Amarante STP (1991) Biologia e Comportamento Reprodutivo de Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) albitarse F. (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae). Dissertation, Universidade de São Paulo. proposed that this species has a considerable high dispersal capacity. The wide geographical distribution of the species, the presumed high dispersal capacity and the successful nesting behavior in areas under anthropic pressure provide evidence of a lack of strong barriers to gene flow among populations of T. albitarse. However, the population genetic structure reported for the species (Peruquetti, 2003Peruquetti RC (2003) Aspectos da Biologia, Estrutura Populacional e Parentesco Intranidal em Vespas do Gênero Trypoxylon (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae). Thesis, Universidade Federal de São Carlos.) and others of the same genus (Santoni, 2008Santoni MM (2008) Biologia de Nidificação e Estrutura Sociogenética Intranidal em Espécies de Trypoxylon (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Dissertation, Universidade Federal de São Carlos.) raises questions regarding the degree of dispersal among males and the effect of the presumed philopatric behavior of females (Melo, 2000Melo GAR (2000) Comportamento social em vespas da família Sphecidae (Hymenoptera, Apoidea). In: Martins RP, Lewinsohn TM and Barbeiros MS (eds) Ecologia e Comportamento de Insetos. Série Oecologia Brasiliensis, Vol. VIII. PPGE-UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, pp. 85-130.) on the population genetic structure of species of Trypoxylon. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to estimate the degree of genetic differentiation among populations of T. albitarse using eight species-specific microsatellite loci.

Material and Methods

Sampling and fieldwork

Specimens of T. albitarse were collected from five populations in Brazil: Ilhéus (state of Bahia), Viçosa (state of Minas Gerais), Lavras (state of Minas Gerais), São Carlos (state of São Paulo) and Guarapuava (state of Paraná) (Figure 1 and Table 1). The sampling sites were located in the northeastern, southeastern and southern regions of the country, with distances ranging from 238 km (Lavras to Viçosa) to 1797 km (Guarapuava to Ilhéus) between sites.

Figure 1
Map illustrating the geographical origin of five samples of Trypoxylon albitarse analyzed. The site codes were described in Table 1.
Table 1
Characterization of the sampling sites of Trypoxylon albitarse nests.

Trypoxylon albitarse nests with mud tubes found on the walls of human constructions were carefully opened with fine-tipped tweezers. When immature individuals in the pupal stage were found, the cocoons were placed in individual, duly labeled, plastic tubes, taken to the laboratory and kept at room temperature until the emergence of the adult stage, when the sex was determined, followed by storage of the material at −20 °C for subsequent DNA extraction.

DNA extraction, microsatellite loci amplification and genotyping

Total DNA was extracted after the maceration of three pairs of legs or the mesosoma of adult specimens of T. albitarse using protocols based on either phenol-chloroform (Fernandes-Salomão et al., 2005Fernandes-Salomão TM, Rocha RB, Campos LAO and Araújo EE (2005) The first internal transcribed spacer (ITS-1) from Melipona species (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini): Characterization and phylogenetic analysis. Insectes Soc 52:11-18.) or Chelex 100 (Walsh et al., 1991Walsh PS, Metzger DA and Higuchi R (1991) Chelex 100 as a medium for simple extraction of DNA for PCR-based typing from forensic material. Biotechniques 10:506-513.). Samples were genotyped for nine species-specific microsatellite loci: TALB01, TALB02, TALB03, TALB05, TALB06, TALB07, TALB09, TALB12 and TALB14 (Almeida et al., 2013.Almeida JC, Bergamaschi ACB, Sanchez A, Hatanaka T and Del Lama MA (2013) Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci for the mud-dauber wasp Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) albitarse Fabricius, 1804 (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Eur J Entomol 110:541-543.). Polymerase chain reactions (PCR) were performed in an Eppendorf Mastercycler thermal cycler (Hamburg, Germany) using 250 μM of each dNTP, 2.5 mM of MgCl2, 0.5 μM of the fluorescently labeled forward primer, 0.5 mM of the reverse primer, 1x BioTools buffer and 1 U of Taq DNA polymerase (BioTools, Madrid, Spain) in a final volume of 10 μL. Amplification consisted of an initial denaturation step at 94 °C for 3 min, followed by 35 cycles of denaturation at 94 °C for 30 s, annealing of the primers at the specific temperature for each locus indicated by Almeida et al. (2013)Almeida JC, Bergamaschi ACB, Sanchez A, Hatanaka T and Del Lama MA (2013) Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci for the mud-dauber wasp Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) albitarse Fabricius, 1804 (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Eur J Entomol 110:541-543. for 20 s and chain extension at 72 °C for 1 min. Amplification cycles were followed by a final extension step at 70 °C for 10 min.

Approximately 13% of the samples were retyped to verify the reproducibility of the data and confirm the genotypes considered when weak or double peaks were found. To minimize the occurrence of missing data, PCR was performed up to three times in cases of the absence of amplification for a given locus.

The amplification products were analyzed after a run in the MegaBace-1000 automated sequencer (GE Healthcare, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom). Fragment size was established by comparing the peaks in the set of samples to the ET550R size marker in the MegaBace Fragment Profiler program, version 1.2.

Data analysis

As in most species of Hymenoptera, T. albitarse males develop from unfertilized eggs and are haploid, whereas females develop from fertilized eggs and are diploid. Based on this feature, only females were used in the genetic analysis. To avoid biased results due to the familial structure of the nests, only one female per nest was considered in the final dataset. The number of wasps analyzed per sampling site varied from 12 to 37 (Table 3).

Given the different sample size of each population of T. albitarse analyzed, the HP-Rare program, version1.1 (Kalinowski, 2005Kalinowski ST (2005) HP-Rare: A computer program for performing rarefaction on measures of allelic diversity. Mol Ecol Notes 5:187-189.), which applies the rarefaction method (Kalinowski, 2004Kalinowski ST (2004) Counting alleles with rarefaction: Private alleles and hierarchical sampling designs. Conserv Genet 5:539-543.), was used to estimate allele richness and the occurrence of private alleles in each population. Genotype data were analyzed using the Arlequin program, version 3.11 (Excoffier et al., 2005Excoffier L, Laval G and Schneider S (2005) Arlequin software, http://cmpg.unibe.ch/software/arlequin3/ (September 9, 2014).
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) to obtain estimates of observed and expected heterozygosity for each locus and for the verification of linkage disequilibrium between loci. The significance of differences in genetic diversity between populations was tested using a paired t-test of arcsine transformed He values (Archie, 1985Archie JW (1985) Statistical analysis of heterozygosity data: Independent sample comparisons. Evolution 39:623-637.). Significant deviations from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were determined using the GenAlEx program, version 6.5 (Peakall and Smouse, 2006Peakall R and Smouse PE (2006) GenAlEx 6: Genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research. Mol Ecol Notes 6:288-295.). A 5% significance level (p < 0.05) was adopted for all statistical tests, and the sequential Bonferroni correction (Rice, 1989Rice WR (1989) Analyzing tables of statistical tests. Evolution 43:223-225.) was used when significant deviations were detected.

Population differentiation was estimated using total and pairwise Fst (Weir and Cockerham, 1984Weir BS and Cockerham CC (1984) Estimating F-statistics for analysis of population structure. Evolution 38:1358-1370.) and Dest (Jost, 2008Jost L (2008) GST and its relatives do not measure differentiation. Mol Ecol 17:4015-4026.) values using the FSTAT 2.9.3.2 (Goudet, 2001Goudet J (2001) FSTAT software, http://www2.unil.ch/popgen/softwares/fstat.htm (September 9, 2014).
http://www2.unil.ch/popgen/softwares/fst...
) and GenAlEx 6.5 (Peakall and Smouse, 2006Peakall R and Smouse PE (2006) GenAlEx software, http://biology-assets.anu.edu.au/GenAlEx/Welcome.html (September 9, 2014).
http://biology-assets.anu.edu.au/GenAlEx...
) programs, respectively. In order to test the association of pairwise results obtained for both indexes, the Pearsons r-correlation coefficient was estimated using the program STATISTICA 7.0 (StatSoft Inc. 2004StatSoft, Inc (2004) STATISTICA (data analysis software system), version 7. www.statsoft.com (June 2015).
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). Additionally, the partition of genetic variation within and among populations was estimated through Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) (Excoffier et al., 1992Excoffier L, Smouse PE and Quattro JM (1992) Analysis of molecular variance inferred from metric distances among DNA haplotypes: Application to human mitochondrial DNA restriction data. Genetics 131:479-491.) using the program Arlequin 3.11 (Excoffier et al., 2005Excoffier L, Laval G and Schneider S (2005) Arlequin v. 3.0: An integrated software package for population genetics data analysis. Evol Bioinform Online 1:47-50.). The level of genetic differentiation among populations was also estimated by an assignment test conducted in the GenAlEx program, version 6.5 (Peakall and Smouse, 2006Peakall R and Smouse PE (2006) GenAlEx 6: Genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research. Mol Ecol Notes 6:288-295.), which indicates the percentage of individuals correctly assigned to their original populations.

Population structure was investigated using a clustering approach with Bayesian inference in the Structure program, version 2.3.4 (Pritchard et al., 2000Pritchard JK, Stephens M and Donnelly P (2000) Inference of population structure using multilocus genotype data. Genetics 155:945-959.), for which no a priori information was provided on the origin of individuals. Using the mixed ancestry model with independent allele frequencies among populations, five simulations were conducted for each inferred K (number of genetic clusters), which ranged from 1 to 5. In each run, 1,000,000 repetitions of burn-in were conducted, followed by 5,000,000 MCMC repetitions. The estimated probabilities for each run were used to estimate ΔK (Evanno et al., 2005Evanno G, Regnaut S and Goudet J (2005) Detecting the number of clusters of individuals using the software STRUCTURE: A simulation study. Mol Ecol 14:2611-2620.), which represents the most probable number of genetic clusters in the database.

Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to identify the distribution of genetic variation in the geographic samples using the GenAlEx program (Peakall and Smouse, 2006Peakall R and Smouse PE (2006) GenAlEx 6: Genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research. Mol Ecol Notes 6:288-295.). This program was also employed to test the correlation between genetic and geographic distances using a Mantel test (Mantel 1967Mantel NA (1967) The detection of disease clustering and a generalized regression approach. Cancer Res 27:209-220.).

The inbreeding coefficient (Fis) (Weir and Cockerham, 1984Weir BS and Cockerham CC (1984) Estimating F-statistics for analysis of population structure. Evolution 38:1358-1370.) was verified using the program FSTAT 2.9.3.2 (Goudet, 2001Goudet J (2001) FSTAT software, http://www2.unil.ch/popgen/softwares/fstat.htm (September 9, 2014).
http://www2.unil.ch/popgen/softwares/fst...
). The software BOTTLENECK 1.2.02 (Piry et al., 1999Piry S, Luikart G and Cornuet JM (1999) BOTTLENECK: A computer program for detecting recent reductions in the effective population size using allele frequency data. J Hered 90:502-503.) was used to test the heterozygosity excess and to estimate possible genetic bottlenecks signatures in all populations. As recommended by Piry et al. (1999)Piry S, Luikart G and Cornuet JM (1999) BOTTLENECK: A computer program for detecting recent reductions in the effective population size using allele frequency data. J Hered 90:502-503. for microsatellite data, a two-phase mutation model (TPM) was assumed, with 95% single-step mutations and 5% multiple-step mutations, and variance among multiple steps of 12. Subsequently, heterozygosity excess significance over all loci (p) was determined by the Wilcoxon's test.

The Kingroup2 program (Konovalov et al., 2004Konovalov DA, Manning C and Henshaw MT (2004) KINGROUP: A program for pedigree relationship reconstruction and kin group assignments using genetic markers. Mol Ecol Notes 4:779-782.) was used to determine kinship among females of each population through estimates of maximum likelihood using the approach described by Queller and Goodnight (1989)Queller DC and Goodnight KF (1989) Estimating relatedness using genetic markers. Evolution 43:258-275. and Goodnight and Queller (1999)Goodnight KF and Queller DC (1999) Computer software for performing likelihood tests of pedigree relationships using genetic markers. Mol Ecol 8:1231-1234..

Results

Genetic diversity

Trypoxylon albitarse females (n = 96) from the five sampling sites were genotyped for nine microsatellite loci. As locus TALB12 was monomorphic in all samples, only eight loci were considered in the analysis. The lack of amplification for some loci, even after repetitions of the PCR, generated a missing data rate of nearly 3%.

Table 2 displays the estimates of allelic richness (A) and private alleles (Ap). Table 3 displays data on sample size, estimates of expected (He) and observed (Ho) intralocus and mean heterozygosity as well as significant deviations from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. No linkage disequilibrium was observed between the pairs of loci used in the genetic analyses.

Table 2
Allelic richness (A) and private alleles (Ap) estimated using rarefaction method at eight microsatellite loci of five populations of Trypoxylon albitarse. The site codes were described in Table 1.
Table 3
Sample size (n), observed (Ho) and expected (He) intralocus heterozygosity and chi-square values for deviations from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) in five populations of Trypoxylon albitarse from Brazil genotyped at eight microsatellite loci. The site codes were described in Table 1.

Genetic structure

Estimates of differentiation using the Fst and Dest indices for pairs of populations were obtained for all loci. The results indicated significant genetic differentiation between all pairs of populations, but one (Lavras vs. Guarapuava) (Table 4). The Pearson's r correlation coefficient among the pairwise values of both indexes revealed a positive association between them (r = 0.994). Overall Fst and Dest values [0.11 (p < 0.01) and 0.13 (p < 0.01), respectively] indicated significant population differentiation. The distribution of genetic variation within and among populations was determined using AMOVA (Table 5). The assignment test indicated that 76% of individuals analyzed were properly assigned to their populations of origin.

Table 4
Fst (below the diagonal) and Dest (above the diagonal) values for pairs of Trypoxylon albitarse populations from five sites in Brazil genotyped at eight microsatellite loci. The site codes were described in Table 1.
Table 5
Distribution of genetic variation within and among Trypoxylon albitarse populations genotyped at eight microsatellite loci according to AMOVA.

The differentiation pattern obtained through Bayesian analysis identified two alternative genetic clusters (K = 2) (Figure 2). A similar pattern was found using PCA (Figure 3). Both analyses revealed similar results and indicated that individuals from Ilhéus could be assigned to one or another of the two genetic groups identified in the analysis. The Mantel test indicated no correlation between genetic and geographic distances (r = −0.47; p = 0.1).

Figure 2
Bayesian clustering plots of Trypoxylon albitarse populations genotyped using eight microsatellite loci when K = 2 [each color represents one genetic cluster; each vertical column represents one individual and its chance of assignment to each of the two alternative genetic clusters (scale on the left)]. The site codes were described in Table 1.
Figure 3
Principal component analysis based on genetic distances obtained by genotyping at eight microsatellite loci for the females from five populations of Trypoxylon albitarse. Axes 1 and 2 explain 30.1% and 18.4% of the genetic variation detected, respectively. The site codes were described in Table 1.

Fis values over all loci were positive and significantly different from zero in the five populations, ranging from 0.154 to 0.285 [0.157 (p < 0.01), 0.169 (p < 0.01), 0.285 (p < 0.01), 0.154 (p < 0.05) and 0.223 (p < 0.01) for Ilhéus, Viçosa, Lavras, São Carlos and Guarapuava respectively].

The test carried out in the program BOTTLENECK resulted in significant values, indicating a possible bottleneck effect for all the populations studied. The Wilcoxon sign-rank test for heterozygosity excess, using the two phase mutation model, resulted in the values 0.187 (p < 0.01), 0.632 (p < 0.01), 0.204 (p < 0.001), 0.187 (p < 0.01) and 0.101 (p < 0.01) for Ilhéus, Viçosa, Lavras, São Carlos and Guarapuava, respectively.

Although some pairwise estimates of relatedness (r) were close to 25% (rarely above this value), low mean relatedness values between pairs of females of each population were observed [Ilhéus (r = 0.002 ± 0.25), Lavras (r = 0.012 ± 0.22), Viçosa (r = 0.014 ± 0.3), São Carlos (r = −0.0007 ± 0.24) and Guarapuava (r = −0.003 ± 0.28)].

Discussion

Differences among populations were detected regarding the degree of variation in the microsatellite loci. As an example, TALB09 and TALB14 loci exhibited polymorphism in two and four populations, respectively. Allelic richness per locus was estimated for the five populations and private alleles were detected in at least one locus for each population analyzed. According to Kalinowski (2005)Kalinowski ST (2005) HP-Rare: A computer program for performing rarefaction on measures of allelic diversity. Mol Ecol Notes 5:187-189., the number of alleles or allelic richness is a simple measure of genetic diversity that is highly dependent on sample size. Thus, the rarefaction method (Kalinowski, 2004Kalinowski ST (2004) Counting alleles with rarefaction: Private alleles and hierarchical sampling designs. Conserv Genet 5:539-543.) was employed to estimate allelic richness and the number of private alleles and minimize the sample size effect. The analysis revealed high level of allelic richness at most loci in each population (Table 2), including Guarapuava, which was the population with the smallest sample (n = 12).

Expected intralocus heterozygosity did not differ substantially among populations, except for TALB01 (0.17 to 0.72). Comparatively, the smallest variation in He among populations (0.14 to 0.25) occurred at locus TALB09 and even the highly polymorphic locus TALB07 exhibited a low level of variation (0.86 to 0.93). Thus, mean expected heterozygosity did not differ substantially among populations (range: 0.54 to 0.63) (Table 3), which was confirmed by a paired t-test using expected intralocus heterozygosity values for each population. Despite the similar heterozygosities, the number of private alleles at each locus differed (Table 2), suggesting inter-population differentiation.

The verification of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium at each locus and T. albitarse population revealed that all loci, except TALB03, had at least a significant p-value (< 0.05). However following the Bonferroni correction, most deviations were found not to be significant. Deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium are generally associated with inbreeding, population structuring, the effects of natural selection, preferential mating, and/or the presence of null alleles (Templeton, 2011Templeton AR (2011) Genética de Populações e Teoria Microevolutiva. Sociedade Brasileira de Genética, Ribeirão Preto, 705 p.). Among these alternatives, the action of the natural selection seems unlikely, given that microsatellite markers are usually considered neutral and therefore free of the effects of this evolutionary mechanism. A high hit rate in the repeated genotyping (about 13% of the female wasps of this study) associated to a positive amplification of 174 haploid males of T. albitarse genotyped for the same loci of this study (Bergamaschi et al., in pressBergamaschi ACB, Almeida JCA, Campos LAO and Del Lama MA (in press) Sociogenetic structure in nests of the mud dauber wasp Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) albitarse Fabricius, 1804 (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Eur J Entomol.) indicated that null alleles may not be common in these loci. High frequencies of mating between relatives (endogamy) would certainly generate deviations in the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium at all loci and not only in isolated cases, as observed in the present study.

Dest values were higher than the corresponding Fst values and a positive association was found between the two indices (Table 4). Furthermore, AMOVA and the assignment test were also consistent with the Fst and Dest values, thereby confirming that the populations analyzed are not genetically homogeneous, but show a moderate differentiation level according to the criterion of Wright (1978)Wright S (1978) Evolution and the genetics of populations. Vol. 4. Variability Within and Among Natural Populations. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 590 p..

Bayesian analysis and PCA pointed to similar results. Two alternative genetic clusters were identified: one composed by the Viçosa and São Carlos populations and the second by the Lavras and Guarapuava populations. Individuals from Ilhéus were distributed between the two alternative groups. As expected, the Mantel test revealed no correlation between genetic and geographic distances.

The absence of genetic homogeneity, associated to the significant values of the inbreeding coefficient (Fis) among populations could be partially attributed to the presumed philopatry of Trypoxylon females. If an area is colonized by a small number of females, this results in a founder effect. If the growth of local populations occurs by the reproduction of the original nests, with the construction of satellite nests by daughters of the founding females, local populations would consist of few familial groups. Thus, despite the dispersal of males, some structuring would be possible due to the behavior of daughters nesting close to their native site. This hypothesis is in accordance with the possible recent demographic bottlenecks detected in all populations of T. albitarse studied. However, kinship analysis showed low genetic relatedness among females of the same population, suggesting that the dispersal ability of males may be sufficient to generate a low r values among females of the same population. It is worthy of note that this result is not due to the low resolution power of the genetic markers employed, as r values used to estimate the relatedness among individuals from the same nest were consistent with those expected for a predominantly monogamous genetic system (Bergamaschi et al., in pressBergamaschi ACB, Almeida JCA, Campos LAO and Del Lama MA (in press) Sociogenetic structure in nests of the mud dauber wasp Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) albitarse Fabricius, 1804 (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Eur J Entomol.).

Little information is available on flight and dispersal capacity among species of Trypoxylon. Amarante (1991)Amarante STP (1991) Biologia e Comportamento Reprodutivo de Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) albitarse F. (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae). Dissertation, Universidade de São Paulo. reported a low recapture rate of adult specimens of T. albitarse during a behavioral study (4.6% and 15.1% for females and males, respectively) and reported that specimens marked during nesting activity were observed up to 42 days after marking. Based on these findings, the author proposed that this species has good dispersal capacity. Studies involving other species of the genus also suggest that these wasps have a high emigration rate (Freeman, 1981Freeman B (1981) The dynamics in Trinidad of the Sphecid wasp Trypoxylon palliditarse: A thompsonian population? J Anim Ecol 50:563-572.; Molumby, 1997Molumby A (1997) Why make daughters larger? Maternal sex-allocation and sex-dependent selection for body size in a mass-provisioning wasp, Trypoxylon politum. Behav Ecol 8:279-287.; Buschini and Bergamaschi, 2010Buschini MLT and Bergamaschi ACB (2010) Strongly female-biased sex allocation in a trivoltine population of Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) opacum Brèthes (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Acta Zool 91:433-439., 2014Buschini MLT and Bergamaschi ACB (2014) Sex ratio and parental investment in Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) agamemnon Richards (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Braz J Biol 74:231-237.; Buschini and Donatti, 2012Buschini MLT and Donatti AJ (2012) Nesting behavior of Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) agamemnom Richards (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae). Braz J Biol 72:353-362.). However, evidence regarding the degree of dispersal in T. albitarse is not coherent with the inter-population genetic differentiation observed in the present investigation and the one by Peruquetti (2003)Peruquetti RC (2003) Aspectos da Biologia, Estrutura Populacional e Parentesco Intranidal em Vespas do Gênero Trypoxylon (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae). Thesis, Universidade Federal de São Carlos..

In conclusion, this study makes a significant contribution to knowledge on the population genetics of cabronid wasps, which has been rarely studied. Given the relevance of these wasps to the phylogeny of bees and the present findings of moderate inter-population heterogeneity, further studies involving the genotyping of other populations of T. albitarse in a more limited geographical scale, as well as phylogenetically related species, are needed to obtain more conclusive results about the effects of gene flow and female philopatry on the genetic differentiation among populations of Trypoxylon species.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Marco Antonio Costa (Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz), Íris Stancíola (Universidade Federal de Viçosa), Lúcio Antonio de Oliveira Campos (Universidade Federal de Viçosa) and Maria Luísa Tunes Buschini (Universidade Estadual do Centro-Oeste) who generously provided support during the field sampling and allowed access to the study sites. This research was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq 480706/2010).

  • Associate Editor: Fabrício Rodrigues dos Santos

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Internet Resources

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    24 Nov 2015
  • Date of issue
    Oct-Dec 2015

History

  • Received
    19 Apr 2015
  • Accepted
    20 July 2015
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