PhD Dissertation: “Comparative Phylogeography of bats in South America” by Natalia Cortes-Delgado (Mason-Gamer Lab)
August 28, 2023
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Location
SELE 4289
Calendar
Download iCal FilePlease join us at 1pm on Monday, August 28th for "Comparative Phylogeography of bats in South America" by Natalia Cortes-Delgado (Mason-Gamer Lab)
Abstract:
One of the most important factors for species diversification in South America is The Andes mountain range. The complex geological history of the Andes resulted in the creation of new habitats, climate fluctuations, barriers, and corridors for the inhabitant species. The Andes support one of the richest bat faunas in the world, but the drivers of this diversity are not well understood especially in view of bat vagility. To establish the effect of the Andes on bat population structure, the species Sturnira bogotensis, Sturnira erythromos, Artibeus fraterculus, and Glossophaga soricina will be the main focus. These species are of great interest, owed to their widespread and contrasting distributions on both the east and west sides of the Andes. Both species of Sturnira are highland species, while A. fraterculus and G. soricina are lowland species. It is expected that the highland species will be more capable of dispersing through montane passes, and so, would have higher gene flow and thus weaker population structure than the lowland species.
This work has two main aims. First, to analyze the evolutionary processes that are related to genetic structure in bat populations. Second, evaluate the effect of the Andes uplift on the divergence and structuring of populations of species of the bat genera Sturnira, Artibeus and Glossophaga. Using ultraconserved elements (UCEs) and one mitochondrial gene as markers, it was found that the lowland bat Glossophaga soricina, is composed by two lineages separated by the Andes. In contrast, populations of the also lowland bat Artibeus fraterculus present on the East side of the Andes showed slight structure caused by the Andes, which could be related to recent colonization. Lastly, according to phylogenetic analyses the highland bats Sturnira bogotensis and Sturnira erythromos do not displayed structure as expected, which could be related to their vagility, the use of low passes, and the use of the Andean cloud forests as corridor north-south.
Date posted
Aug 22, 2023
Date updated
Aug 22, 2023