ORCID
- Ellis, Jon: 0000-0002-6655-4685
- Turner, Lucy: 0000-0002-9052-9498
- Knight, Mairi: 0000-0001-9388-4850
Abstract
Assessing genetic variation underlying ecologically important traits is increasingly of interest and importance in population and conservation genetics. For some groups generally useful markers exist for examining the relative role of selection and drift in shaping genetic diversity e.g. the major histocompatibility complex in vertebrates and self-incompatibility loci in plants. For invertebrates there is no such generally useful locus. However, phosphoglucose isomerase (Pgi) has been proposed as a useful functional marker in the conservation genetics of invertebrates. Where thermal microclimate varies, balanced polymorphisms may be maintained due to trade-offs between thermally stable and kinetically advantageous allelic forms. We here report very low levels of Pgi variation in bumblebees rendering this locus to be of little use as an adaptive marker in a conservation genetics context in this group. Potential explanations for this lack of variation are considered.
DOI
10.1371/jourl.pone.0065600
Publication Date
2013-06-04
Publication Title
PLoS ONE
Volume
8
Issue
6
ISSN
1932-6203
Organisational Unit
School of Biological and Marine Sciences
First Page
1
Last Page
11
Recommended Citation
Ellis, J. S., Turner, L., & Knight, M. (2013) 'Lack of Variation at Phosphoglucose Isomerase (Pgi) in Bumblebees: Implications for Conservation Genetics Studies', PLoS ONE, 8(6), pp. 1-11. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/jourl.pone.0065600
