Ecological Genetics
Biol 5240
Quick Quiz Questions
Colautti, R.I., M. Manca, M. Viljanen, H.A.M. Ketellars, H. Burgi, J. J.
Macisaac, and D.D. Heath. 2005. Invasion genetics of the Eurasian spiny
waterflea: evidence for bottlenecks and gene flow using microsatellites.
Molecular Ecology 14:1869-1879.
1. What kind of very practical information can ecological geneticists provide
to conservation managers with this kind of study? How can this
information be used in the real world?
2. When an invasive species first colonizes a new area, we typically imagine
that genetic diversity will be reduced due to the founding event followed by
drift in small populations. What evidence did the authors find that
supports this hypothesis? What evidence contradicts this hypothesis?
3. How did pairwise comparisions of FST differ in this study:
 among the European populations?
 among the invasive US populations?
 among European and US population?
What explanation did the authors provide for these patterns?
4. Why do the authors suggest that the facultative parthenogenetic life cycle
of B. longimanus provides the “best of both worlds” for invasion success in
this system? (page 1877, end of second column).