Biogeographic and Genomic Analysis of Atlantic Montane Butterflies: Actinote e Pampasatyrus

• Grant number: 18/11591-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: August 17, 2018
• End date: February 27, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Animal Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Karina Lucas da Silva-Brandão
• Grantee: Luiza de Moraes Magaldi
• Supervisor: Fabien Condamine
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université Montpellier 2, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 15/24663-4 - Biogeographic and diversification patterns of the butterflies from Highlands of Southeastern Brazil, BP.DR

Abstract

Montane areas are ideal environments to study the processes that shape the distribution of species and lead to speciation. This study proposes the use of two genera of butterflies to understand and test biogeographic hypotheses on the highlands of Brazil's coastal rainforest in Atlantic Forest. Thereby, a comparison will be done between two clades of Nymphalidae butterflies that inhabit distinct environments in this montane region: campos de altitude (Pampasatyrus) and forest edges or clearings (Actinote). Our main hypothesis is that these two groups are expected to show distinct genetic signatures associated with different biogeographic processes in the two physiognomies to which they are associated. Additionally, we will explore how ecological differences between two species of Actinote butterflies co-distributed (but not exclusively) along the Atlantic Forest impact their patterns of genetic diversity using a genomic population approach (GBS). Also, they can be used to infer the molecular divergence between A. alalia and A. mantiqueira, this species was described recently (Freitas et al., 2018) separating populations from south Brazil (A. alalia) and the populations of southeast Brazil (A. mantiqueira). Therefore, the proposed population genomic study will search for putative under-selection regions among the sister species and will be the first to construct the complete genome library of Actinote species.