Late Pleistocene genetic diversification and demographic expansion in the widely distributed neotropical ant Neoponera villosa (Ponerinae)

Abstract

Phylogeographic studies of continent-wide distributed species are key to understand population dynamics processes that occurred at large geographical scales. Here, we examined two mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequence (COI, Cyt b) and eight nuclear microsatellites markers to investigate the cohesiveness, genetic diversity and demographic history of Neoponera villosa (Fabricius), a ponerine ant species widely distributed along most part of the Neotropics and southern Nearctic. The reconstructed phylogeny and mt variation supported the cohesiveness of the examined populations of N. villosa. The species probably originated in South America during the late Pliocene/middle Pleistocene and subsequently dispersed to Central America and the Transitional Nearctic-Neotropical zone during the late Pleistocene, with an increase in its population size ca. 30 thousand years ago. The limited phylogeographic structure observed in N. villosa supports its late Pleistocene range expansion and gene flow among distant geographic areas in central and southern Mexico and Central America.

Keywords:

• Mitochondrial DNA
• microsatellite
• phylogeography
• formicidae
• insecta

Acknowledgments

We thank P. E. Hanson, J. Longino, I. Fernandes and M. Vásquez-Bolaños for the loan/donation of specimens; Devon Graham from Project Amazonas for his help during the visit of AZR to Iquitos, Peru; M. C. Mayorga-Martínez and E. G. Ortega-León for their help with the curation of specimens; L. M. Márquez-Valdelamar for her assistance in the DNA sequencing; and L. Eguiarte-Frons for revising the manuscript. M. M. R. thanks A. Jiménez-Marín for her assistance in the laboratory; J. Gasca, R. Colin and C. Peraza-Lara for their advice with some analyses; L. V. López-Franco for his help with the edition of some figures; F. F. Almazan-Evangelista and O. A. Sánchez-Sierra for the illustration of N. villosa; and the Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, UNAM, for its support during her studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by grants given by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT, Mexico, Proyecto SEP-Ciencia Básica no. 220454) and UNAM (PAPIIT-DGAPA convocatoria 2016, proyecto no. IN207016) to AZR, and by the grant given by the Proyecto de cooperación internacional ECOS-NORD/SEP-CONACyT-ANUIES (no. 207562/M12A01) to AZR and CP. This study is part of the PhD thesis of MMR, who received a PhD scholarship from CONACyT, Mexico. JGR is supported by a post-doctoral grant given by the Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.