Date of Award

1-1-2016

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

First Advisor

Thomas W. Quinn, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Robin Tinghitella

Third Advisor

Scott Nichols

Keywords

Assortative mating, Lesser snow goose, Population genetics

Abstract

The Lesser Snow Goose has been shown to exhibit imprinted positive assortative mating on the basis of its color phases, blue and white, and it has been proposed that the geographic cline of the color phases reflects a historic allopatry of the phases. Using ddRAD-seq, thousands of SNPs were analyzed in both phases and in colonies across the range of the species to examine genetic evidence for separation of the color phases or along the two migratory pathways, which have also been hypothesized to be separate. These analyses did not reveal any genetic differentiation between the color phases nor by migratory pathway. These data are consistent with a single panmictic population. The Lesser Snow Goose is a poor candidate for sympatric speciation, as gene flow between the phases is high, and assortative mating is focused on a single locus.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Brent B. Horowitz

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

40 p.

Discipline

Genetics

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