Projects per year
Abstract / Description of output
Under the neutral theory, genetic diversity is expected to be an increasing function ofpopulation size. However, comparative studies have consistently failed to find strong correlations between measures of census population size and genetic diversity. Instead, a recent comparative study across several animal phyla identified propagule size as the strongest predictor of genetic diversity, suggesting that r-strategists that produce many offspring but invest little in each, have greater long-term effective population sizes.However, this cannot explain differences in genetic diversity across taxa that show little or no variation in reproductive strategy. We present a comparison of genome-wide levels of genetic diversity across 38 species of European butterflies (Papilionoidea). We show that genetic diversity across butterflies varies over an order of magnitude and that this variation cannot be explained by differences in current abundance, propagule size, host plant use or geographic range. Instead, neutral genetic diversity is negatively correlated with body size and positively with the length of the genetic map. This suggests that genetic diversity is determined both by differences in long-term population size and the effect of selection on linked neutral sites.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 3466 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-9 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Nature Communications |
Volume | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 2019 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- biodiversity
- biogeography
- evolutionary genetics
- genetic variation
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'The determinants of genetic diversity in butterflies'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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Using genomes to dissect the speciation process - a comparative approach
31/12/14 → 30/11/21
Project: Research
Datasets
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Data from: Body macronutrient composition is predicted by lipid and not protein content of the diet
Moatt, J. (Creator), Hambly, C. (Creator), Heap, E. (Creator), Kramer, A. (Creator), Moon, F. (Creator), Speakman, J. R. (Creator) & Walling, C. (Creator), Dryad, 24 Oct 2017
DOI: 10.5061/dryad.k3rv4
Dataset
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The determinants of genetic diversity in butterflies – Lewontin's paradox revisited
Mackintosh, A. (Creator), Lohse, K. (Creator), Laetsch, D. (Creator), Hayward, A. (Creator), Charlesworth, B. (Creator), Waterfall, M. (Creator), Vila, R. (Creator) & Lohse, K. (Creator), European Nucleotide Archive, 21 Feb 2019
https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/data/view/PRJEB31360
Dataset