Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Phylogenomics has the power to reveal complex evolutionary hypotheses across taxa, thereby allowing important glimpses into the evolutionary history, such as incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) and introgression among closely related species. The Saxicola torquatus complex comprises several widely distributed insectivorous bird species across the Palearctic and Afrotropical realms. Nevertheless, the evolutionary history within this complex remains contentious, and previous findings suggest complications caused by cytonuclear discordance. Here, we conducted a phylogenomic analysis of nearly complete taxa within the complex using genome-wide single nucleotide variants to investigate potential causes of phylogenetic discordance across genomic regions and elucidate its evolutionary history. We detected multiple reticulate events during their diversification, leading to extensive phylogenetic discordance across the genome. The mitochondrial genome and non-recombining region of the W chromosome exhibited a consistent gene tree that conflicted with the species tree, with introgression being the most plausible explanation among several hypotheses. The Z chromosome was less affected by ILS/introgression and exhibited relatively stable local phylogenies compared to autosomes. Furthermore, we found that strongly introgressed regions were predominantly concentrated at the ends of smaller chromosomes, and the strength of introgression among species pairs showed consistently positive correlations, likely attributed to shared recombination hotspots in these regions. These findings stress the heterogeneous genomic landscape influenced by intricate evolutionary processes (e.g., ILS, introgression, and recombination) that endorse a reticulate evolution model for global speciation in the S. torquatus complex.
Source: 动物学研究
Authors: Jiang Chuan, 东北林业大学野生动物与自然保护地学院, 黑龙江 哈尔滨 150040, 中国, Liu Yang, Zhu Wen-Wen, Mohamed Nassoro, Jin Jia-Zheng, Li Bo, 中山大学生态学院, 广东 深圳518107, 中国, 暨南大学生命科学技术学院, 广东 广州 510632, 中国, 华大基因, 湖北 武汉430074, 中国, 国家林业和草原局野生动植物检测中心, 黑龙江 哈尔滨 150040, 中国
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4415678799
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