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Microsatellite analysis supports the existence of three cryptic species within the bumble bee Bombus lucorum sensu lato

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Abstract

Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) partial sequences are widely used in taxonomy for species identification. Increasingly, these sequence identities are combined with modelling approaches to delineate species. Yet the validity of species delineation based on such DNA ‘barcodes’ is rarely tested and may be called into question by phenomena such as ancestral polymorphisms in DNA sequences, phylogeographic divergence, mitochondrial introgression and hybridization, or distortion of mitochondrial inheritance through such factors as Wolbachia infection. The common and widespread European bumble bee Bombus lucorum s. lato contains three distinct mitochondrial DNA lineages that are assumed to represent three cryptic species, namely Bombus cryptarum, B. lucorum s. str. and B. magnus. To test whether nuclear gene pools of the three putative species were differentiated, we genotyped 304 sympatric members of the lucorum complex (54 B. cryptarum females, 168 B. lucorum s. str. females and 82 B. magnus females, as defined using mtDNA COI haplotypes) from 11 localities spread across the island of Ireland at seven nuclear microsatellite loci. Multilocus genotypes clustered into three discrete groups that largely corresponded to the three mtDNA lineages: B. cryptarum, B. lucorum s. str. and B. magnus. The good fit of mitochondrial haplotype to nuclear (microsatellite) genotypic data supports the view that these three bumble bee taxa are reproductively isolated species, as well as providing a vindication of species identity using so-called DNA barcodes.

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photo credit: Bertsch et al. (2004)

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Acknowledgements

We thank friends and colleagues who helped to collect bumble bees across Ireland: D. Cookson, D. Dominoni, M. Kelly and S. Roos; Andreas Bertsch for use of his photographs, comments on this manuscript and encouragement to engage with the lucorum complex; and Robin Moritz for laboratory and intellectual support. We also thank two anonymous reviewers and editor-in-chief as well as Shalene Jha and Christophe Praz for many insightful comments that helped improve the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Higher Education Authority of Ireland as part of its North–South Research Programme for Peace and Reconciliation. L McKendrick thanks DARD for their financial support (a PhD stipend) and patience.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT9 7BL, UK

    Lorraine McKendrick & Robert J. Paxton

  2. Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Penglais, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, SY23 3DA, UK

    Jim Provan

  3. National Biodiversity Data Centre, Carriganore, Waterford, Ireland

    Úna Fitzpatrick & Tómas E. Murray

  4. School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK

    Mark J. F. Brown

  5. School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK

    Eckart Stolle

  6. Institute for Biology, Martin Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Hoher Weg 8, 06120, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Robert J. Paxton

  7. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle-Jena-Leipzig (iDiv), Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Robert J. Paxton

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  1. Lorraine McKendrick
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McKendrick, L., Provan, J., Fitzpatrick, Ú. et al. Microsatellite analysis supports the existence of three cryptic species within the bumble bee Bombus lucorum sensu lato . Conserv Genet 18, 573–584 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-017-0965-3

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