TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schröder, Christiane
A1  - Pokorny, Ina
A1  - Dolgener, Nicola
A1  - Herden, Christoph
A1  - Drews, Hauke
A1  - Tiedemann, Ralph
T1  - Allochthonous individuals in managed populations of the fire-bellied toad Bombina bombina genetic detection and conservation implications
JF  - Limnologica : ecology and management of inland waters
N2  - The ongoing global amphibian decline calls for an increase of habitat and population management efforts. Pond restoration and construction is more and more accompanied by breeding and translocation programs. However, the appropriateness of translocations as a tool for conservation has been widely debated, as it can cause biodiversity loss through genetic homogenization and can disrupt local adaptation, eventually leading to outbreeding depression. In this study, we investigated the genetic structure of two translocated populations of the critically endangered fire-bellied toad Bombina bombina at its north western distribution edge using supposedly neutral genetic markers (variation in the mitochondrial control region and microsatellites) as well as a marker under selection (major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes). While one of the newly established populations showed the typical genetic composition of surrounding populations, the other was extremely diverged without clear affinity to its putative source. In this population we detected a profound impact of allochthonous individuals: 100% of the analyzed individuals exhibited a highly divergent mitochondrial haplotype which was otherwise found in Austria. 83% of them were also assigned to Austria by the analysis of microsatellites. Interestingly, for the adaptive marker (MHC) local alleles were predominant in this population, while only very few alleles were shared with the Austrian population. Probably Mendelian inheritance has reshuffled genotypes such that adaptive local alleles are maintained (here, MHC), while presumably neutral allochthonous alleles dominate at other loci. The release of allochthonous individuals generally increased the genetic variability of the affected population without wiping out locally adaptive genotypes. Thus, outbreeding depression might be less apparent than sometimes thought and natural selection appears strong enough to maintain locally adaptive alleles, at least in functionally important immune system genes.
KW  - Bombina bombina
KW  - Microsatellites
KW  - MHC
KW  - Mitochondrial DNA
KW  - Population management
KW  - Translocation
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.limno.2012.08.008
SN  - 0075-9511
VL  - 42
IS  - 4
SP  - 291
EP  - 298
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Jena
ER  -