Dados do Trabalho

Título

GENETIC STRUCTURE AND DISPERSAL PATTERNS OF WHITE-BELLIED SPIDER MONKEYS (ATELES BELZEBUTH) IN A PRISTINE FOREST IN WESTERN AMAZONIA.

Resumo

Data on the genetic structure and molecular ecology of long-lived taxa (e.g., primates) provide valuable information to better understand their population dynamics and evolution. Given that primate habitats are rapidly being transformed, studies on their genetic variability and population structure in relatively undisturbed habitats becomes urgent. Spider monkeys have been studied for the last four decades, nonetheless, most studies have focused on one or few social groups. The main goal of this study is to describe the dispersal patterns, genetic relatedness and overall genetic diversity of wild spider monkeys in a study population absent of human intervention at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in western Amazonia. We collected non-invasive fecal samples from 99 individuals residing in four social groups, and genotyped them at 12 polymorphic microsatellite markers. We found high level of variability with no significant difference between observed and expected homozygosity and an average of 8.8 alleles per marker. We found no evidence of genetic structure between adults of different social groups (mean between-group Fst=0.042). Males from the different group had higher assignment index values (AI=0.174) compared with females that show negative value (AI=-0.116). These results agree with prior studies and observational data supporting that males are the philopatric sex in spider monkey and females are the migrant sex. The absence of population structuring and gene flow between social groups of spider monkey might be a consequence of sampling neighboring groups in a pristine area in the Neotropics. This study provides baseline data on the genetic structure of relatively undisturbed spider monkey populations that may provide a referential framework to better understand how anthropogenic disturbances influence most of the remaining wild populations of spider monkeys.

Financiamento

Universidad de los Andes; Proyecto Primates; National Science Foundation # 1062540; National Science Foundation #1638822; Wenner-Gren Foundation – International Collaborative Research Grant ;National Geographic Society Research and Exploration Grants; Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation; Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin;

Palavras-chave

microsatellite; philopatry; gene flow