A phylogenomic assessment of processes underpinning convergent evolution in open-habitat chats

Alaei Kakhki, Niloofar, Schweizer, Manuel, Lutgen, Dave, Bowie, Rauri C K, Shirihai, Hadoram, Suh, Alexander ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8979-9992, Schielzeth, Holger and Burri, Reto (2023) A phylogenomic assessment of processes underpinning convergent evolution in open-habitat chats. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 40 (1). ISSN 0737-4038

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Abstract

Insights into the processes underpinning convergent evolution advance our understanding of the contributions of ancestral, introgressed, and novel genetic variation to phenotypic evolution. Phylogenomic analyses characterizing genome-wide gene tree heterogeneity can provide first clues about the extent of ILS and of introgression and thereby into the potential of these processes or (in their absence) the need to invoke novel mutations to underpin convergent evolution. Here, we were interested in understanding the processes involved in convergent evolution in open-habitat chats (wheatears of the genus Oenanthe and their relatives). To this end, based on whole-genome resequencing data from 50 taxa of 44 species, we established the species tree, characterized gene tree heterogeneity, and investigated the footprints of ILS and introgression within the latter. The species tree corroborates the pattern of abundant convergent evolution, especially in wheatears. The high levels of gene tree heterogeneity in wheatears are explained by ILS alone only for 30% of internal branches. For multiple branches with high gene tree heterogeneity, D-statistics and phylogenetic networks identified footprints of introgression. Finally, long branches without extensive ILS between clades sporting similar phenotypes provide suggestive evidence for the role of novel mutations in the evolution of these phenotypes. Together, our results suggest that convergent evolution in open-habitat chats involved diverse processes and highlight that phenotypic diversification is often complex and best depicted as a network of interacting lineages.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding information: This research was supported by a German Research Foundation (DFG) research grant (BU3456/3-1) to R.B., the National Research Fund (FNR), Luxembourg, grant number 14575729 to D.L., and a Georg Foster Research Stipend of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and a scholarship for female researchers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, both to N.A.K. Data Availability: All sequencing data produced in the framework of this study are available on the ENA under project accession PRJEB58431.
Uncontrolled Keywords: birds,gene tree heterogeneity,incomplete lineage sorting,introgression,mutation,ecology, evolution, behavior and systematics,molecular biology,genetics ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1105
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 20 Feb 2023 14:30
Last Modified: 02 Dec 2024 01:41
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/91202
DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msac278

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