Temporal genetic variation in a population of the pocket gopher,Geomys bursarius

✍ Scribed by E. G. Zimmerman

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 431 KB
• Volume: 76
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-6707
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00058814

✦ Synopsis

Genetic variation at eight polymorphic loci was examined in a population of a subterranean rodent, the plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius), sampled over a 10-yr period. Two loci exhibited relatively minor changes in gene frequencies, while the remaining loci demonstrated major shifts in predominant alleles, loss of minor alleles, and addition of alleles due to migration. Significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg expectations, concomitant to heterozygote deficiencies, were observed for several loci. Temporal heterogeneity, as measured by FsT, was high and comparable to that exhibited by local populations sampled over relatively short periods of time. The high degree of temporal genetic variation is consistent with observations that fossorial rodents occur in locally isolated populations with small effective population sizes that are subject to genetic drift, bottlenecking, and inbreeding.