Speaker
Description
Genetic diversity is a fundamental component of biodiversity that contributes to the capacity of populations to cope with environmental change. Understanding the extent to which population genetic processes are consistently associated with environmental factors across species is a powerful way to examine the processes maintaining patterns of biodiversity. The field of macrogenetics addresses these types of questions by synthesizing publicly available data to study population genetics at broad spatial and taxonomic scales. Macrogenetics research predominantly focuses on vertebrates, particularly mammals, and rarely features invertebrates. From a biodiversity perspective, this is a major knowledge gap because invertebrates, especially insects, account for ~80% of all animal species and an estimated 300 metric tons of the planet’s biomass—a figure comparable to humans plus livestock. We therefore know little about the broad scale spatial distribution of insect genetic diversity across species, or how such patterns covary with environments, latitude, population structure (eusocial vs. solitary), dispersal ability, and human-caused environmental change.
To address this issue, we are harvesting insect nuclear genetic data from public data repositories to build an insect macrogenetic database. The collection will be added to a global macrogenetic database, MMPop!, which is comprised of microsatellite genotypes from vertebrate wildlife populations. Microsatellites, touted for their highly polymorphic and neutrally evolving characteristics, are a commonly used nuclear genetic marker in population genetics. This approach differs from many existing macrogenetics studies which mobilize mitochondrial DNA barcoding sequences. Despite their abundance and low-cost, mtDNA barcodes are not generally suitable for testing questions about intraspecific genetic diversity.
Using a list of over 50,000 insect genera and common names, we queried the Dryad data repository for microsatellite genetic data. We then selected data to include in the database based on a priori inclusion criteria. The poster will showcase the database building process along with preliminary analytical results.
| Status Group | Doctoral Researcher |
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