Investigating Hybridization between the Two Sibling Bat Species Myotis myotis and M. blythii from Guano in a Natural Mixed Maternity Colony. 2017

Eve Afonso, and Anne-Claude Goydadin, and Patrick Giraudoux, and Gilles Farny
Laboratoire Chrono-environnement UMR CNRS 6249, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France.

Because they can form seasonal mixed-species groups during mating and maternal care, bats are exciting models for studying interspecific hybridization. Myotis myotis and M. blythii are genetically close and morphologically almost identical, but they differ in some aspects of their ecology and life-history traits. When they occur in sympatry, they often form large mixed maternity colonies, in which their relative abundance can vary across time due to a shift in the timing of parturition. For the first time, we used non-invasive genetic methods to assess the hybridization rate and colony composition in a maternity colony of M. myotis and M. blythii located in the French Alps. Bat guano was collected on five sampling dates spread across the roost occupancy period and was analysed for individual genotype. We investigated whether the presence of hybrids followed the pattern of one of the parental species or if it was intermediate. We identified 140 M. myotis, 12 M. blythii and 13 hybrids among 250 samples. Parental species appeared as genetically well-differentiated clusters, with an asymmetrical introgression towards M. blythii. By studying colony parameters (effective size, sex ratio and proportion of the three bat types) across the sampling dates, we found that the abundances of hybrid and M. blythii individuals were positively correlated. Our study provides a promising non-invasive method to study hybridization in bats and raises questions about the taxonomic status of the two Myotis species. We discuss the contribution of this study to the knowledge of hybrid ecology, and we make recommendations for possible future research to better understand the ecology and behaviour of hybrid individuals.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D002678 Chimera An individual that contains cell populations derived from different zygotes. Hybrids,Chimeras,Hybrid
D002685 Chiroptera Order of mammals whose members are adapted for flight. It includes bats, flying foxes, and fruit bats. Bats,Flying Foxes,Horseshoe Bats,Pteropodidae,Pteropus,Rhinolophus,Rousettus,Bat, Horseshoe,Bats, Horseshoe,Foxes, Flying,Horseshoe Bat
D005260 Female Females
D000818 Animals Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA. Animal,Metazoa,Animalia

Related Publications

Eve Afonso, and Anne-Claude Goydadin, and Patrick Giraudoux, and Gilles Farny
December 2006, Proceedings. Biological sciences,
Eve Afonso, and Anne-Claude Goydadin, and Patrick Giraudoux, and Gilles Farny
March 1968, Science (New York, N.Y.),
Eve Afonso, and Anne-Claude Goydadin, and Patrick Giraudoux, and Gilles Farny
May 2024, Molecular ecology,
Eve Afonso, and Anne-Claude Goydadin, and Patrick Giraudoux, and Gilles Farny
October 1988, Medical and veterinary entomology,
Eve Afonso, and Anne-Claude Goydadin, and Patrick Giraudoux, and Gilles Farny
October 1945, Transactions of the American Microscopical Society,
Eve Afonso, and Anne-Claude Goydadin, and Patrick Giraudoux, and Gilles Farny
March 2022, Zootaxa,
Eve Afonso, and Anne-Claude Goydadin, and Patrick Giraudoux, and Gilles Farny
May 2023, Viruses,
Eve Afonso, and Anne-Claude Goydadin, and Patrick Giraudoux, and Gilles Farny
May 2011, Oecologia,
Eve Afonso, and Anne-Claude Goydadin, and Patrick Giraudoux, and Gilles Farny
August 2020, International journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology,
Eve Afonso, and Anne-Claude Goydadin, and Patrick Giraudoux, and Gilles Farny
August 2020, Molecular ecology,
Copied contents to your clipboard!