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Demographic Variation of Wolbachia Infection in the Endangered Mitchell’s Satyr Butterfly

The Mitchell’s satyr, Neonympha mitchellii, is an endangered species that is limited to highly isolated habitats in the northern and southern United States. Conservation strategies for isolated endangered species often implement captive breeding and translocation programs for repopulation. However,...

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Autores principales: Fenner, Jennifer, Seltzer, Jennifer, Peyton, Scott, Sullivan, Heather, Tolson, Peter, Walsh, Ryan P., Hill, JoVonn, Counterman, Brian A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5492064/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28486424
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects8020050
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author Fenner, Jennifer
Seltzer, Jennifer
Peyton, Scott
Sullivan, Heather
Tolson, Peter
Walsh, Ryan P.
Hill, JoVonn
Counterman, Brian A.
author_facet Fenner, Jennifer
Seltzer, Jennifer
Peyton, Scott
Sullivan, Heather
Tolson, Peter
Walsh, Ryan P.
Hill, JoVonn
Counterman, Brian A.
author_sort Fenner, Jennifer
collection PubMed
description The Mitchell’s satyr, Neonympha mitchellii, is an endangered species that is limited to highly isolated habitats in the northern and southern United States. Conservation strategies for isolated endangered species often implement captive breeding and translocation programs for repopulation. However, these programs risk increasing the spread of harmful pathogens, such as the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia. Wolbachia can manipulate the host’s reproduction leading to incompatibilities between infected and uninfected hosts. This study uses molecular methods to screen for Wolbachia presence across the distribution of the Mitchell’s satyr and its subspecies, St. Francis satyr, which are both federally listed as endangered and are considered two of the rarest butterflies in North America. The screens confirmed the presence of Wolbachia in the northern and newly discovered southern populations of the Mitchell’s satyr, but not in the St. Francis satyr population. These results combined with previous reports of Wolbachia in N. mitchellii, highlight that Wolbachia infection varies both geographically and temporally in satyr populations. The temporal variance shows the importance of continued monitoring of Wolbachia infection during conservation programs. To reduce the risk of reproductive incompatibilities, it is advised that all individuals collected for conservation purposes be screened for Wolbachia and recommended to avoid the use of infected individuals for captive breeding and translocation programs.
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spelling pubmed-54920642017-07-03 Demographic Variation of Wolbachia Infection in the Endangered Mitchell’s Satyr Butterfly Fenner, Jennifer Seltzer, Jennifer Peyton, Scott Sullivan, Heather Tolson, Peter Walsh, Ryan P. Hill, JoVonn Counterman, Brian A. Insects Article The Mitchell’s satyr, Neonympha mitchellii, is an endangered species that is limited to highly isolated habitats in the northern and southern United States. Conservation strategies for isolated endangered species often implement captive breeding and translocation programs for repopulation. However, these programs risk increasing the spread of harmful pathogens, such as the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia. Wolbachia can manipulate the host’s reproduction leading to incompatibilities between infected and uninfected hosts. This study uses molecular methods to screen for Wolbachia presence across the distribution of the Mitchell’s satyr and its subspecies, St. Francis satyr, which are both federally listed as endangered and are considered two of the rarest butterflies in North America. The screens confirmed the presence of Wolbachia in the northern and newly discovered southern populations of the Mitchell’s satyr, but not in the St. Francis satyr population. These results combined with previous reports of Wolbachia in N. mitchellii, highlight that Wolbachia infection varies both geographically and temporally in satyr populations. The temporal variance shows the importance of continued monitoring of Wolbachia infection during conservation programs. To reduce the risk of reproductive incompatibilities, it is advised that all individuals collected for conservation purposes be screened for Wolbachia and recommended to avoid the use of infected individuals for captive breeding and translocation programs. MDPI 2017-05-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5492064/ /pubmed/28486424 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects8020050 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Fenner, Jennifer
Seltzer, Jennifer
Peyton, Scott
Sullivan, Heather
Tolson, Peter
Walsh, Ryan P.
Hill, JoVonn
Counterman, Brian A.
Demographic Variation of Wolbachia Infection in the Endangered Mitchell’s Satyr Butterfly
title Demographic Variation of Wolbachia Infection in the Endangered Mitchell’s Satyr Butterfly
title_full Demographic Variation of Wolbachia Infection in the Endangered Mitchell’s Satyr Butterfly
title_fullStr Demographic Variation of Wolbachia Infection in the Endangered Mitchell’s Satyr Butterfly
title_full_unstemmed Demographic Variation of Wolbachia Infection in the Endangered Mitchell’s Satyr Butterfly
title_short Demographic Variation of Wolbachia Infection in the Endangered Mitchell’s Satyr Butterfly
title_sort demographic variation of wolbachia infection in the endangered mitchell’s satyr butterfly
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5492064/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28486424
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects8020050
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