Abstract

Genetic diversity is of crucial importance for population fitness and the potential of populations to adapt to environmental change. Population-level genetic diversity is expected to be reduced in specialists having small and isolated populations. We analysed genetic structure and diversity in (pre-)Alpine populations of four Copper butterfly species, differing in the degree of habitat specialisation. Despite substantial variation among genetic markers and molecular indices, genetic diversity and thus evolutionary potential tended to be highest in Lycaena hippothoe and lowest in L. tityrus. Microsatellite analyses revealed that genetic diversity tended to be higher in L. hippothoe and L. virgaureae than in L. helle and L. tityrus. MDH sequencing indicated only few differences among species, while GAPDH sequencing showed higher genetic diversity in L. hippothoe and L. tityrus than in L. virgaureae and L. helle. In L. helle, populations showed strong genetic differentiation but without clear spatial structure, while the other species showed genetic differentiation among clusters according to cardinal directions. These results do not match our a priori predictions of a high genetic diversity in L. tityrus and a particularly low one in the glacial relict L. helle. We thus document that evolutionary potential is not necessarily constrained in relict taxa, and that predicting genetic diversity is challenging.

Implications for insect conservation

Conservation status does not necessarily reflect genetic diversity at the species level. It thus seems to be more meaningful to focus on specific populations of concern to assess genetic vulnerability to environmental change.

中文翻译：

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专业化是否会影响四种铜蝴蝶的（前）高山种群的遗传多样性？

摘要

遗传多样性对于人口适应性以及人口适应环境变化的潜力至关重要。人口较少且孤立的专家的人口水平遗传多样性预计将减少。我们分析了四种铜蝴蝶种类的（前）高山种群的遗传结构和多样性，其生境专业化程度不同。尽管遗传标记和分子指标之间存在很大差异，但遗传多样性以及因此的进化潜力在Lycaena hippothoe中最高，而在L. tityrus中则最低。微卫星分析表明，遗传多样性往往是在更高L. hippothoe和L. virgaureae比L.牡和L. tityrus。MDH测序表明仅物种之间一些差异，而GAPDH测序发现在较高的遗传多样性L. hippothoe和L. tityrus比L. virgaureae和L.赫勒。在L. helle中，种群显示出强烈的遗传分化但没有清晰的空间结构，而其他物种则根据基本方向在集群之间表现出遗传分化。这些结果与我们的先验预测不符，即铁叶柳杉的遗传多样性较高，而冰川遗物L. helle中的遗传多样性特别低。。因此，我们记录了进化潜力未必在遗留类群中受到限制，并且预测遗传多样性具有挑战性。

对昆虫保护的意义

保护状态不一定反映物种一级的遗传多样性。因此，着眼于关注的特定人群以评估遗传对环境变化的脆弱性似乎更有意义。