Temporal matches between monarch butterfly and milkweed population changes over the past 25,000 years.
Curr Biol
; 33(17): 3702-3710.e5, 2023 09 11.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37607548
ABSTRACT
In intimate ecological interactions, the interdependency of species may result in correlated demographic histories. For species of conservation concern, understanding the long-term dynamics of such interactions may shed light on the drivers of population decline. Here, we address the demographic history of the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, and its dominant host plant, the common milkweed Asclepias syriaca (A. syriaca), using broad-scale sampling and genomic inference. Because genetic resources for milkweed have lagged behind those for monarchs, we first release a chromosome-level genome assembly and annotation for common milkweed. Next, we show that despite its enormous geographic range across eastern North America, A. syriaca is best characterized as a single, roughly panmictic population. Using approximate Bayesian computation with random forests (ABC-RF), a machine learning method for reconstructing demographic histories, we show that both monarchs and milkweed experienced population expansion during the most recent recession of North American glaciers 10,000-20,000 years ago. Our data also identify concurrent population expansions in both species during the large-scale clearing of eastern forests (â¼200 years ago). Finally, we find no evidence that either species experienced a reduction in effective population size over the past 75 years. Thus, the well-documented decline of monarch abundance over the past 40 years is not visible in our genomic dataset, reflecting a possible mismatch of the overwintering census population to effective population size in this species.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Borboletas
/
Asclepias
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Curr Biol
Assunto da revista:
BIOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos