Continental island effect in Sichuan Basin based on the genetic structure of sparrow

Abstract

Abstract Islands are ideal settings for the study of evolution, ecology and genetic diversity. The tree sparrow (Passer montanus), which is distributed both inside and outside the Sichuan Basin and is relatively easy to capture, was used as our study species to test whether any genetic differences exist between within and outside of the Sichuan Basin. We analyzed mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequence variations to illustrate the continental island effect within the Sichuan Basin. Overall, fragments from four mtDNA and one nuclear sequence (Cytb + COI + 12S rRNA + Dloop + Myo) were amplified, with the concatenated alignment comprising 3234 bp. The results of Bayesian and maximum parsimony trees indicated two major branches, one of which is composed mainly of populations within the Sichuan Basin, while the other comprised populations distributed in the surrounding mountains. The population in Sichuan Basin was more basal than that in the surrounding mountains. The genetic distance between inner and outer populations was 0.095 and genetic differentiation index (FST) between inner and outer populations was 0.342. This study shows that the overall distribution pattern of tree sparrow populations in the Sichuan Basin and its surrounding mountains is probably the result of a vicariance event due to spatial isolation.