Contrasting genetic structure in two co-distributed species of old world fruit bat

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 5; no. 11; p. e13903
• Main Authors: Chen, Jinping, Rossiter, Stephen J, Flanders, Jonathan R, Sun, Yanhong, Hua, Panyu, Miller-Butterworth, Cassandra, Liu, Xusheng, Rajan, Koilmani E, Zhang, Shuyi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 10.11.2010; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adaptations; Analysis of Variance; Animal behavior; Animals; Bats; Biodiversity; Biogeography; Caves; China; Chiroptera; Chiroptera - classification; Chiroptera - genetics; Chiroptera - growth & development; Cluster Analysis; Colonies; Cynopterus sphinx; Cytochromes b - genetics; Demographics; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA, Mitochondrial - chemistry; DNA, Mitochondrial - genetics; Ecology; Evolution; Evolutionary Biology/Animal Genetics; Evolutionary Biology/Evolutionary and Comparative Genetics; Evolutionary Biology/Evolutionary Ecology; Fruits; Gene flow; Genetic structure; Genetic Variation; Genotype; Genotypes; Geography; Haplotypes; Homogeneity; India; Laboratory animals; Leaves; Life sciences; Megachiroptera; Microsatellite Repeats - genetics; Microsatellites; Mitochondrial DNA; Molecular Sequence Data; Morphology; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Phylogeography; Population; Population genetics; Population growth; Rousettus leschenaulti; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Small mammals; Social organization; Social structure; Species; Species Specificity; Taxa; Vietnam; Vietnam; China; India
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0013903

The fulvous fruit bat (Rousettus leschenaulti) and the greater short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx) are two abundant and widely co-distributed Old World fruit bats in Southeast and East Asia. The former species forms large colonies in caves while the latter roots in small groups in trees. To test whether these differences in social organization and roosting ecology are associated with contrasting patterns of gene flow, we used mtDNA and nuclear loci to characterize population genetic subdivision and phylogeographic histories in both species sampled from China, Vietnam and India. Our analyses from R. leschenaulti using both types of marker revealed little evidence of genetic structure across the study region. On the other hand, C. sphinx showed significant genetic mtDNA differentiation between the samples from India compared with China and Vietnam, as well as greater structuring of microsatellite genotypes within China. Demographic analyses indicated signatures of past rapid population expansion in both taxa, with more recent demographic growth in C. sphinx. Therefore, the relative genetic homogeneity in R. leschenaulti is unlikely to reflect past events. Instead we suggest that the absence of substructure in R. leschenaulti is a consequence of higher levels of gene flow among colonies, and that greater vagility in this species is an adaptation associated with cave roosting.