Genetic Analysis of Termite Colonies in Wisconsin

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to document current areas of subterranean termite activity in Wisconsin and to evaluate genetic characteristics of these northern, peripheral colonies. Here, amplified fragment-length polymorphism was used to characterize levels of inbreeding, expected heterozygosity, and percent polymorphism within colonies as well as genetic structure among populations sampled. Genetic analysis revealed two species of termites occur in Wisconsin, Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar) and Reticulitermes tibialis Banks, both found in the southern half of the state. Colonies of both species in Wisconsin are thought to represent the northern boundary of their current distributions. Measurements of within colony genetic variation showed the proportion of polymorphic loci to be between 52.9–63.9% and expected heterozygosity to range from 0.122–0.189. Consistent with geographical isolation, strong intercolony genetic differences were observed, with over 50% of FST values above 0.25 and the remaining showing moderate levels of genetic differentiation. Combined with low levels of inbreeding in most collection locations (FIS 0.042–0.123), we hypothesize termites were introduced numerous times in the state, likely by anthropogenic means. We discuss the potential effects of these genetic characteristics on successful colony establishment of termites along the northern boundary compared with termites in the core region of their distribution.

[1]  G. Esenther.  Termites in Wisconsin , 1969 .

[2]  S. Wright.  Evolution and the Genetics of Populations, Volume 3: Experimental Results and Evolutionary Deductions , 1977 .

[3]  Philip Heidelberger,et al.  A spectral method for confidence interval generation and run length control in simulations , 1981, CACM.

[4]  Philip Heidelberger,et al.  Simulation Run Length Control in the Presence of an Initial Transient , 1983, Oper. Res..

[5]  L. Reilly.  Measurements of Inbreeding and Average Relatedness in a Termite Population , 1987, The American Naturalist.

[6]  J. K. Grace,et al.  EASTERN SUBTERRANEAN TERMITE (ISOPTERA: RHINOTERMITIDAE) FORAGING TERRITORIES AND POPULATIONS IN TORONTO , 1989, The Canadian Entomologist.

[7]  P. Vos,et al.  AFLP: a new technique for DNA fingerprinting. , 1995, Nucleic acids research.

[8]  R. Brandl,et al.  Variation between and within colonies in the termite: morphology, genomic DNA, and behaviour , 1998 .

[9]  P. Hebert,et al.  Population genetic structure of the Neotropical termite Nasutitermes nigriceps (Isoptera: Termitidae) , 1998, Heredity.

[10]  L. Zhivotovsky.  Estimating population structure in diploids with multilocus dominant DNA markers , 1999, Molecular ecology.

[11]  Eldridge S. Adams,et al.  Variation in colony structure in the subterranean termite Reticulitermes flavipes , 2001, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[12]  T. Miura,et al.  Population Structure and Genetic Diversity in Insular Populations of Nasutitermes takasagoensis (Isoptera: Termitidae) Analyzed by AFLP Markers , 2002, Zoological science.

[13]  I. Roldán‐Ruiz,et al.  Data from amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers show indication of size homoplasy and of a relationship between degree of homoplasy and fragment size , 2002, Molecular ecology.

[14]  E. Vargo,et al.  HIERARCHICAL ANALYSIS OF COLONY AND POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE OF THE EASTERN SUBTERRANEAN TERMITE, RETICULITERMES FLAVIPES, USING TWO CLASSES OF MOLECULAR MARKERS , 2003, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[15]  S. Kelley,et al.  Isolation by distance, web service , 2005, BMC Genetics.

[16]  E. Vargo,et al.  An indirect test of inbreeding depression in the termites Reticulitermes flavipes and Reticulitermes virginicus , 2006, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[17]  Arnaud Estoup,et al.  Geneland: a computer package for landscape genetics , 2005 .

[18]  A. Jones.  gerud 2.0: a computer program for the reconstruction of parental genotypes from half‐sib progeny arrays with known or unknown parents , 2005 .

[19]  Arnaud Estoup,et al.  A Spatial Statistical Model for Landscape Genetics , 2005, Genetics.

[20]  R. Scheffrahn,et al.  Genetic Variation of Reticulitermes flavipes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) in North America Applying the Mitochondrial rRNA 16S Gene , 2005 .

[21]  E. Vargo,et al.  Inbreeding and disease resistance in a social insect: effects of heterozygosity on immunocompetence in the termite Zootermopsis angusticollis , 2006, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[22]  R. Scheffrahn,et al.  GENETIC EVIDENCE FOR TWO INTRODUCTIONS OF THE FORMOSAN SUBTERRANEAN TERMITE, COPTOTERMES FORMOSANUS (ISOPTERA: RHINOTERMITIDAE), TO THE UNITED STATES , 2006 .

[23]  C. Eckert,et al.  Genetic variation across species’ geographical ranges: the central–marginal hypothesis and beyond , 2008, Molecular ecology.

[24]  E. Vargo,et al.  Biology of subterranean termites: insights from molecular studies of Reticulitermes and Coptotermes. , 2009, Annual review of entomology.

[25]  G. Guillot,et al.  Using AFLP markers and the Geneland program for the inference of population genetic structure , 2010, Molecular ecology resources.

[26]  A. Oleksa,et al.  Increased inbreeding and strong kinship structure in Taxus baccata estimated from both AFLP and SSR data , 2011, Heredity.

[27]  G. Thompson,et al.  Trap Response and Genetic Structure of Eastern Subterranean Termites (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) in Point Pelee National Park, Ontario, Canada , 2011, The Canadian Entomologist.

[28]  G. Thompson,et al.  Genetic Evidence for Multiple Invasions of the Eastern Subterranean Termite Into Canada , 2012, Environmental entomology.

[29]  Nan-Yao Su,et al.  Managing social insects of urban importance. , 2012, Annual review of entomology.

[30]  M. Berres,et al.  Genetic population structure of the blister beetle, Gnathium minimum: core and peripheral populations. , 2014, The Journal of heredity.

[31]  R. Arango.  First Record of the Arid-Land Termite Reticulitermes tibialis Banks, in Wisconsin , 2015 .