Variation in Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) Mitochondrial DNA

Abstract

Pied Flycatchers( Ficedulah ypoleucai)n Sweden have low levels of variation in nuclearg enesr elative to mosto ther bird speciesT. his lacko f variationh asb een attributed to population bottlenecks caused by Pleistocene glaciations. We studied mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in 20 Pied Flycatchers from four Swedish localities. Eight restriction endonucleasesy ielded a total of 207-212 DNA fragments( approximately5 % of the mtDNA genome). The mean pairwise divergence between the individuals was 0.35 + 0.16% (range 0.00-0.82%),w hich suggestst hat the 18 identified mtDNA clonesd iverged within the past million years, and that the majority of clones evolved within the last 100,000 years. If genetic variation was reduced by prolonged bottlenecking during the last glacial period, low protein heterozygosity and high variability in mtDNA can be explained by a difference in rateso f recoveryo f nucleara nd mtDNA variation.T he Pied Flycatcherin northernE urope may have only recently begun to regain variation in nuclear genes, whereas considerable variation in mtDNA has already accumulated through mutation.