Molecular and morphological insights into the orig

Authors: Laura M Gargan Raphaël Cornette Jon M Yearsley W Ian Montgomery Joana Paupério Paulo C Alves Fidelma Butler Michel Pascal Anne Tresset Anthony Herrel John Lusby David G Tosh Jeremy B Searle Allan D McDevitt

Publish Date: 2016/01/08

Volume: 18, Issue: 3, Pages: 857-871

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Abstract

Identifying routes of invasion is a critical management strategy in controlling the spread of invasive species This is challenging however in the absence of direct evidence Therefore indirect methodologies are used to infer possible invasion sources and routes such as comparisons of genetic and morphological data from populations from invasive ranges and putative source areas The greater whitetoothed shrew Crocidura russula was first discovered in Ireland from skeletal remains in the pellets of birds of prey collected in 2007 and is it is now sufficiently established that the species has a detrimental impact on Ireland’s small mammal community In this study we address the uncertain origins of the Irish population of C russula The cytochrome b gene of mitochondrial DNA was analysed from 143 individuals from throughout its range within a phylogenetic and approximate Bayesian computation framework These analyses revealed that the Irish population stemmed from Europe as opposed to North Africa Additionally mandibles from 523 individuals from Ireland and 28 other European populations were subjected to multivariate and distancebased analyses which demonstrated an association between the Irish population and those in France Switzerland and Belgium When the genetic and morphological analyses were considered together an origin stemming from France was deemed the most likely scenario for the source of the invasive Irish population This study has demonstrated the importance of utilising a multidisciplinary approach when attempting to identify the origins and invasion routes of invasive speciesThis work was part of LMG’s MSc in Evolutionary Biology in University College Dublin UCD and ADM’s Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded by the Irish Research Council Grant No PD/2011/2093 Laboratory work was partly funded by UCD and ADM was provided with further funding from the Heritage Council Ireland Grant No R02511 a Heredity fieldwork grant awarded by the Genetics Society and the Vincent Wildlife Trust for fieldwork JP is currently supported by Project “Genomics and Evolutionary Biology” cofinanced by North Portugal Regional Operational Programme 2007/2013 ON2 – O Novo Norte under the National Strategic Reference Framework NSRF through the European Regional Development Fund ERDF Samples from Molène and Groix Brittany were obtained in the framework of an ATM project “Biodiversités” 2011 from the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris We are extremely grateful to Damien McDevitt Ruth Carden and Ilaria Coscia for assistance during fieldwork in Ireland and to Tom White for providing samples Thanks to Carlotta Sacchi and Danielle Dunlea for assistance in the lab Thanks to Sylvian Dubey Anna Bannikova and JeanFrancois Cosson for discussions on cyt b primers for Crocidura russula and to Ilaria Coscia for advice on ABC We are further grateful to JeanFrancois Cosson for providing raw sequence data from his 2005 publication Thanks to Alan Kelly and Barry McMahon for information on Irish agricultural imports Juan Rofes for information on fossil records of C russula in Europe and to the editor and reviewer for comments on the manuscript We dedicate this paper to two great scientists who’ve taught us so much about small mammals in general our coauthor Michel Pascal and Peter Vogel who both unfortunately left us during this project

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