Phylogenomics of white-eyes, a 'great speciator', reveals Indonesian archipelago as the center of lineage diversity
- National University of Singapore, Singapore
- Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Indonesia
- Swedish Museum of Natural History, Sweden
- Institute of Zoology (CAS), China
- University of California, Berkeley, United States
- Wildlife Reserves Singapore, Singapore
- University of Western Australia, Australia
- University of Southampton, United Kingdom
- Museums Victoria, Australia
- Universitas Syiah Kuala, Indonesia
- Jiangsu Normal University, China
Abstract
Archipelagoes serve as important 'natural laboratories' which facilitate the study of island radiations and contribute to the understanding of evolutionary processes. The white-eye genus Zosterops is a classical example of a 'great speciator', comprising c. 100 species from across the Old World, most of them insular. We achieved an extensive geographic DNA sampling of Zosterops by using historical specimens and recently collected samples. Using over 700 genome-wide loci in conjunction with coalescent species tree methods and gene flow detection approaches, we untangled the reticulated evolutionary history of Zosterops, which comprises three main clades centered in Indo-Africa, Asia, and Australasia, respectively. Genetic introgression between species permeates the Zosterops phylogeny, regardless of how distantly related species are. Crucially, we identified the Indonesian archipelago, and specifically Borneo, as the major centre of diversity and the only area where all three main clades overlap, attesting to the evolutionary importance of this region.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in Dryad database: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8931zcrmt. Raw FASTQ files of target enriched samples are available on NCBI under BioProject no. PRJNA682287.
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Phylogenomics of a 'Great Speciator' Reveals Indonesian Archipelago as the Center of Lineage DiversityDryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.8931zcrmt.
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Zosterops lateralis melanopsNCBI Genome Assembly, 248127.
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A bird's white-eye view on neosex chromosome evolutionNCBI AccessionSingapore Ministry of Education: PRJNA530916.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Singapore Ministry of Education (R-154-000-A59-112)
- Frank E Rheindt
Wildlife Reserved Singapore Conservation Fund (R-154-000-A99-592)
- Frank E Rheindt
Croeni Foundation (R-154-000-A05-592)
- Frank E Rheindt
SEABIG (R-154-000-648-646)
- Balaji Chattopadhyay
SEABIG (R-154-000-648-733)
- Balaji Chattopadhyay
University of Southampton research grant (511206105)
- Kelvin S-H Peh
US National Science Foundation grant (DEB-1441652)
- Rauri CK Bowie
US National Science Foundation grant (DEB-1457845)
- Rauri CK Bowie
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2020, Gwee et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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