1 Department of Biology, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street W., Montreal, Quebec, H4B 1R6, Canada. elizabeth-lawrence@outlook.com.
2 Department of Biology, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street W., Montreal, Quebec, H4B 1R6, Canada.
3 School of Environment, University of Auckland, PO Box 92019, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand.
4 Golder Associates, 7250, rue du Mile End, 3e étage, Montréal, Québec, H2R 3A4, Canada.
5 BT Engineering Inc., 100 Craig Henry Drive, Suite 201, Nepean, Ontario, K2G 5W3, Canada.
6 Department of Biology and Centre for Forest-Interdisciplinary Research, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B 2E9, Canada.

Geo-referenced population-specific microsatellite data across American continents, the MacroPopGen Database.

Sci Data. 2019 04 03;6(1):14

Authors: Lawrence ER, Benavente JN, Matte JM, Marin K, Wells ZRR, Bernos TA, Krasteva N, Habrich A, Nessel GA, Koumrouyan RA, Fraser DJ

Abstract

Population genetic data from nuclear DNA has yet to be synthesized to allow broad scale comparisons of intraspecific diversity versus species diversity. The MacroPopGen database collates and geo-references vertebrate population genetic data across the Americas from 1,308 nuclear microsatellite DNA studies, 897 species, and 9,090 genetically distinct populations where genetic differentiation (FST) was measured. Caribbean populations were particularly distinguished from North, Central, and South American populations, in having higher differentiation (FST?=?0.12 vs. 0.07-0.09) and lower mean numbers of alleles (MNA?=?4.11 vs. 4.84-5.54). While mammalian populations had lower MNA (4.86) than anadromous fish, reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fish, and birds (5.34-7.81), mean heterozygosity was largely similar across groups (0.57-0.63). Mean FST was consistently lowest in anadromous fishes (0.06) and birds (0.05) relative to all other groups (0.09-0.11). Significant differences in Family/Genera variance among continental regions or taxonomic groups were also observed. MacroPopGen can be used in many future applications including latitudinal analyses, spatial analyses (e.g. central-margin), taxonomic comparisons, regional assessments of anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity, and conservation of wild populations.

PMID: 30944329 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]