2. Behavioral Biology TALKS - Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

����80 Regina Jäckel
Metapopulation structure in a leaf beetle driven by a reproductive parasite
Authors: Regina Jäckel 1 , Susanne Dobler 1
Affiliation: 1 Zoological Institute, University of Hamburg
Wolbachia bacteria often affect reproduction as well as mtDNA population structure
of their hosts. We recently showed that the leaf beetle species Altica lythri is infected
with three different Wolbachia strains. The species shows a sex ratio distortion
resulting in a distinctive female excess and linkage disequilibrium between three
Wolbachia strains and three mtDNA haplotypes indicating that the population
structure of mtDNA has been shaped by genetic hitchhiking.
To correlate mtDNA diversity with gender, sex ratio and Wolbachia, we analysed
mtDNA type and Wolbachia infection of 542 specimen collected from 15 populations
across Germany. We detected a total of 11 haplotypes and three Wolbachia strains
(wA1, wA2, wB). Five haplotypes (HT1, HT1*, HT2, HT2*, HT3) were widely
distributed and mostly occurred sympatrically. Sex and haplotype, and haplotype and
Wolbachia infection were strongly correlated. Individuals carrying HT1 were female,
mostly infected and if so bore wA1. Individuals bearing HT1* were female and almost
exclusively uninfected. HT2-and HT2*-individuals could be both genders and were
mostly infected and if so bore wA2. HT3-individuals were either male or female and
mostly bore wB. Since HT1 was usually the most frequent haplotype, a distinctive
female excess follows inevitably. All-female HT1-individuals and the association with
wA1 strongly support that this Wolbachia-strain is a sex ratio distorter and
responsible for the lack of males. Since females need to copulate to produce
offspring, populations with a pervasive wA1 infection should be at a high risk of local
extinction. This may explain the highly unusual sympatric occurrence of several
disjunct Wolbachia and mtDNA haplotypes in a single species.
����81 Nathalie Kaffenberger
The phylogenetics behind community assembly: phylogenetic structure of lowland
rainforest anuran communities in Central Guyana
Authors: Nathalie Kaffenberger 1 , Monique Hoelting 1 , Raffael Ernst 1
Affiliation: 1 Senckenberg Natural History Collections and TU Braunschweig, section
evolutionary biology
Evolutionary biology and ecology have diverged into largely separate disciplines in
the past, but with the advancement of analytical and computational procedures and
because of an exponential increase in available phylogenetic data both disciplines
seem to merge again. Approaches focussing on community assembly processes are
ideal to combine both fields of investigation. In general, several processes are
inferred to influence community assembly and structure: 1. niche-related processes,
2. neutral processes and 3. historical processes. Phylogenetic community ecology can
help to clarify which of these tree processes is the driving force in a certain
community.
In an interdisciplinary project that combines ecological field data collected on
lowland rainforest frog assemblages of Guyana with results of phylogenetic analyses
based on mitochondrial and nuclear marker genes we aim at identifying drivers of
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