Patterns of Vespa velutina invasion in western Iberia and Italy as revealed by mitochondrial and microsatellite markers

• Autor(a) principal: Quaresma, Andreia
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10198/19156
• topic: Asian hornet; Yellow-legged hornet; Invasive species; Population genetics; Molecular markers; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Agrárias::Biotecnologia Agrária e Alimentar

The Yellow-legged or Asian hornet, Vespa velutina nigrithorax, is naturally distributed in Southeast Asia, and it is the first successful exotic Vespidae predator to be accidently introduced in Europe. In 2004, the first individual was reported in France, probably from China and, in the last decade, it spread rapidly through the French territory and to other European countries. In the Iberian Peninsula it was reported for the first time in Spain, in 2010, and in Portugal, in 2011. In 2012, two individuals were reported in the Italian region of Liguria. Using a population genetics framework, the goal of this study was to test the genetic patterns of colonization of this invasive honey bee predator in the Atlantic side of Iberia and in Italy. A total of 246 individuals, each representing a single colony, were collected across the invaded areas in Portugal (190), Spain (45), and Italy (11). Additionally, a dataset containing samples from France, Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia and two provinces of China provided by Arca et al. (2015) was used as a reference for testing hypothesis about the origin of the invasion and the expansion patterns. The genetic variability was assessed using 16 microsatellite loci and the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome C oxidase I (COI). The mtDNA analysis revealed the presence of a single haplotype in Iberia and Italy, which has been also reported for France and the UK. Microsatellite analysis showed a low genetic diversity in these populations, as it is expected from an expansion of an invasive species. Population structure analysis showed that the European populations separate in two clusters: (i) one that contains the populations from France and Italy, and (ii) one with the Portuguese individuals. The Spanish population has individuals in both clusters, while the Portuguese population showed some migrants that cluster with the French individuals. Thus, it was demonstrated that the expansion of the Asian hornet is different in the three countries. Spain and Italy showed a natural spread of the hornet, whereas the Portuguese population showed a human-mediated diffusion together with a natural spread of the Asian hornet.