The Red-eyed Coquí, Eleutherodactylus antillensis, is a terrestrial frog endemic to the Puerto Rican Bank (Puerto Rico and numerous islands and cays off its eastern coast), in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The species was likely introduced in Saint Croix, an island c. 100 km southeast of Puerto Rico, in the late 1930s, and in Panamá City, Panamá, in the late 1950s or early 1960s, but the source(s) of these introductions are unknown. We analyzed sequence data from one mtDNA locus and four nuDNA introns to infer the origin(s) of the Saint Croix and Panamá City populations and quantify their genetic diversity. Saint Croix and Panamanian populations do not share any haplotypes, and they cluster with different native populations, suggesting that they are derived from separate sources in the Puerto Rican Bank. Patterns of population structure trace the probable sources of E. antillensis in Saint Croix to islands off Puerto Rico's eastern coast, which include Vieques, Culebra, Saint Thomas, Saint John, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda, and possibly to eastern Puerto Rico as well. In contrast, Panamá City E. antillensis probably originated from either western or eastern Puerto Rico. Genetic diversity in the introduced populations is similar to or lower than in populations in the species' native range, indicating that genetic diversity has not increased in the alien frogs. Our findings may facilitate the development of preventive measures to minimize introductions of non-native amphibians in the Caribbean and Central America.
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June 02 2017
Origins and Genetic Diversity of Introduced Populations of the Puerto Rican Red-Eyed Coquí, Eleutherodactylus antillensis, in Saint Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands) and Panamá
Brittany S. Barker;
Brittany S. Barker
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, BioSciences West Room 310, 1041 E. Lowell St., Tucson, Arizona 85721; Email: bbarker505@gmail.com. Send reprint requests to this address.
2Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, 167 Castetter Hall, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131-0001.
3Present address: US Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Boise, Idaho 83706.
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Javier A. Rodríguez-Robles
Javier A. Rodríguez-Robles
4School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-4004; Email: javier.rodriguez@unlv.edu.
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Copeia (2017) 105 (2): 220–228.
Citation
Brittany S. Barker, Javier A. Rodríguez-Robles; Origins and Genetic Diversity of Introduced Populations of the Puerto Rican Red-Eyed Coquí, Eleutherodactylus antillensis, in Saint Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands) and Panamá. Copeia 1 July 2017; 105 (2): 220–228. doi: https://doi.org/10.1643/CG-16-501
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