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Environmental change and rates of evolution: the phylogeographic pattern within the hartebeest complex as related to climatic variation.

ABSTRACT: Global climate fluctuated considerably throughout the Pliocene-Pleistocene period, influencing the evolutionary history of a wide array of species. Using the phylogeographic patterns within the hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus (Pallas, 1766)) complex, we evaluated the evolutionary consequences of such environmental change for a typical large mammal ranging on the African savannah. Our results, as generated from two mitochondrial DNA markers (the D-loop and cytochrome b), suggest an origin of the hartebeest in eastern Africa from where the species has colonized other parts of the continent. Phylogenetic analyses revealed an early diversification into southern and northern hartebeest lineages, an event that may be related to the formation of the Rift Valley lakes. The northern lineage has further diverged into eastern and western lineages, most probably as a result of the expanding central African rainforest belt and subsequent contraction of savannah habitats during a period of global warming. The diversification events appear to have coincided with major climatic changes and are highly correlated in time. These observations strongly suggest that large-scale climatic fluctuations have been a major determinant for the species' evolutionary history and that hartebeest evolution has mainly taken place in isolated yet environmentally favourable refugia during periods of global warming. Indications of sudden population expansion for two putative ancestral hartebeest populations provide further support for a refugia-based explanation of the diversification events. Reciprocal monophyly between southern and northern lineages may suggest that reproductive barriers exist and that the hartebeest complex comprises two different species.

SUBMITTER: Flagstad O

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1088655 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Environmental change and rates of evolution: the phylogeographic pattern within the hartebeest complex as related to climatic variation.

Flagstad O O Syvertsen P O PO Stenseth N C NC Jakobsen K S KS

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20010401 1468

Global climate fluctuated considerably throughout the Pliocene-Pleistocene period, influencing the evolutionary history of a wide array of species. Using the phylogeographic patterns within the hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus (Pallas, 1766)) complex, we evaluated the evolutionary consequences of such environmental change for a typical large mammal ranging on the African savannah. Our results, as generated from two mitochondrial DNA markers (the D-loop and cytochrome b), suggest an origin of th ...[more]

PMID: 11321054

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Project description:BackgroundTriatoma dimidiata is among the main vectors of Chagas disease in Latin America. However, and despite important advances, there is no consensus about the taxonomic status of phenotypically divergent T. dimidiata populations, which in most recent papers are regarded as subspecies.Methodology and findingsA total of 126 cyt b sequences (621 bp long) were produced for specimens from across the species range. Forty-seven selected specimens representing the main cyt b clades observed (after a preliminary phylogenetic analysis) were also sequenced for an ND4 fragment (554 bp long) and concatenated with their respective cyt b sequences to produce a combined data set totalling 1175 bp/individual. Bayesian and Maximum-Likelihood phylogenetic analyses of both data sets (cyt b, and cyt b+ND4) disclosed four strongly divergent (all pairwise Kimura 2-parameter distances >0.08), monophyletic groups: Group I occurs from Southern Mexico through Central America into Colombia, with Ecuadorian specimens resembling Nicaraguan material; Group II includes samples from Western-Southwestern Mexico; Group III comprises specimens from the Yucatán peninsula; and Group IV consists of sylvatic samples from Belize. The closely-related, yet formally recognized species T. hegneri from the island of Cozumel falls within the divergence range of the T. dimidiata populations studied.ConclusionsWe propose that Groups I-IV, as well as T. hegneri, should be regarded as separate species. In the Petén of Guatemala, representatives of Groups I, II, and III occur in sympatry; the absence of haplotypes with intermediate genetic distances, as shown by multimodal mismatch distribution plots, clearly indicates that reproductive barriers actively promote within-group cohesion. Some sylvatic specimens from Belize belong to a different species - likely the basal lineage of the T. dimidiata complex, originated ~8.25 Mya. The evidence presented here strongly supports the proposition that T. dimidiata is a complex of five cryptic species (Groups I-IV plus T. hegneri) that play different roles as vectors of Chagas disease in the region.

Dataset Information

Environmental change and rates of evolution: the phylogeographic pattern within the hartebeest complex as related to climatic variation.

Publications

Environmental change and rates of evolution: the phylogeographic pattern within the hartebeest complex as related to climatic variation.

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