Genetic Structure of Galápagos Populations of the Yellow Warbler

Sequence variation of control region mitochondrial DNA, phylogenetic reconstruction, and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) were used to determine the degree of genetic structure of Yellow Warblers (Dendroica petechia) in the Galápagos Archipelago. When the Galápagos population was partitioned into subpopulations (by island), AMOVA indicated a nonsignificant level of genetic structure. The presence of the same haplotype on more than one island also indicated low genetic divergence among subpopulations. Using these sequences and those available in Genbank, we also determined the degree of divergence between the Galápagos Yellow Warbler population and other New World populations. Mean sequence divergence between the Galápagos population and Latin American populations was 3.7%, and between the Galápagos population and North American populations was 6.7%.