Quantifying male-biased dispersal among social groups in the collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) using analyses based on mtDNA variation.
Recent advances in the statistical analysis of microsatellite data permit calculation of sex-specific dispersal rates through sex- and age-specific comparisons of genetic variation. This approach, developed for the analysis of data derived from co-dominant autosomal markers, should be applicable to a sex-specific marker such as mitochondrial DNA. To test this premise, we amplified a 449 bp control region DNA sequence from the mitochondrial genome of the collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), and estimated intra-class correlations among herds sampled from three Texas populations. Analyses on data partitioned by breeding group showed a clear signal of male-biased dispersal; sex-specific fixation indices associated with genetic variation among social groups within populations yielded values for females (F(GP)=0.91), which were significantly larger than values for males (F(GP)=0.24; P=0.0015). The same general pattern emerged when the analyses were conducted on age classes (albeit nonsignificantly), as well as categories of individuals that were predicted a posteriori to be dispersers (adult males) and philopatric (adult females and all immatures). By extending a previously published methodology based on biparentally inherited markers to matrilineally inherited haploid data, we calculated sex-specific rates of contemporary dispersal among social groups within populations (m(male symbol)=0.37). These results support the idea that mitochondrial DNA haplotype frequency data can be used to estimate sex-specific instantaneous dispersal rates in a social species.
Cooper
J D
JD
Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
Vitalis
R
R
Waser
P M
PM
Gopurenko
D
D
Hellgren
E C
EC
Gabor
T M
TM
DeWoody
J A
JA
D000818:Animals; D001188:Artiodactyla / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006239:Haplotypes; D008297:Male; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012737:Sex Factors; D013781:Texas; D013997:Time Factors
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial