Pliocene and Pleistocene events shaping the genetic diversity within the central corridor of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

• Autor(a) principal: Resende, Helder C.
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Yotoko, Karla S. C., Delabie, Jacques H. C., Costa, Marco A., Campiopo, Sofia, Tavares, Mara G., Campos, Lucio A. O., Fernandes‐ Salomão, Tânia M.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01534.x; http://www.locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/22619
• topic: Atlantic Forest diversification; Dinoponera lucida; Giant queenless ant; Phylogeography; Pleistocene refuge theory; Ponerinae

Dinoponera lucida (Formicidae; Ponerinae) is an extinction-threatened species of ant which is endemic in the central corridor of the Atlantic Forest. We used mitochondrial sequences of the Cox1, Cox2 and Cytb genes in order to infer some aspects of the evolutionary history and phylogeography of this ant. High genetic divergence and population structure were observed for the whole species. The current pattern of D. lucida diversity seems to be shaped during different geological times: middle Pliocene, early Pleistocene and mainly late Pleistocene, when the reduction of populations generated a structure pattern of the genetic variation of this species. Our data show that this structure results from the maintenance of populations of D. lucida within very small putative refuges to the south of the central Bahia refugium. We thus argue that, for some Atlantic forest endemic species, especially those resistant to very small fragments of forest, such as D. lucida, the small putative refuges were as important as, or even more important than, larger and stable refuges for the creation and maintenance of diversity, adding another piece to the puzzle of the mechanisms underlying local endemism.