Dataset Information

Geographic mode of speciation in a mountain specialist Avian family endemic to the Palearctic.

ABSTRACT: Mountains host greater avian diversity than lowlands at the same latitude due to their greater diversity of habitats stratified along an elevation gradient. Here we test whether this greater ecological heterogeneity promotes sympatric speciation. We selected accentors (Prunellidae), an avian family associated with mountains of the Palearctic, as a model system. Accentors differ in their habitat/elevation preferences and south-central Siberia and Himalayan regions each host 6 of the 13 species in the family. We used sequences of the mtDNA ND2 gene and the intron 9 of the Z chromosome specific ACO1 gene to reconstruct a complete species-level phylogeny of Prunellidae. The tree based on joint analysis of both loci was used to reconstruct the family's biogeographic history and to date the diversification events. We also analyzed the relationship between the node age and sympatry, to determine the geographic mode of speciation in Prunellidae. Our data suggest a Miocene origin of Prunellidae in the Himalayan region. The major division between alpine species (subgenus Laiscopus) and species associated with shrubs (subgenus Prunella) and initial diversification events within the latter happened within the Himalayan region in the Miocene and Pliocene. Accentors colonized other parts of the Palearctic during the Pliocene-Pleistocene transition. This spread across the Palearctic resulted in rapid diversification of accentors. With only a single exception dating to 0.91 Ma, lineages younger than 1.5 Ma are allopatric. In contrast, sympatry values for older nodes are >0. There was no relationship between node age and range symmetry. Allopatric speciation (not to include peripatric) is the predominant geographic mode of speciation in Prunellidae despite the favorable conditions for ecological diversification in the mountains and range overlaps among species.

SUBMITTER: Drovetski SV

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3686188 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Geographic mode of speciation in a mountain specialist Avian family endemic to the Palearctic.

Drovetski Sergei V SV Semenov Georgy G Drovetskaya Sofya S SS Fadeev Igor V IV Red'kin Yaroslav A YA Voelker Gary G

Ecology and evolution 20130418 6

Mountains host greater avian diversity than lowlands at the same latitude due to their greater diversity of habitats stratified along an elevation gradient. Here we test whether this greater ecological heterogeneity promotes sympatric speciation. We selected accentors (Prunellidae), an avian family associated with mountains of the Palearctic, as a model system. Accentors differ in their habitat/elevation preferences and south-central Siberia and Himalayan regions each host 6 of the 13 species in ...[more]

PMID: 23789064

Similar Datasets

Project description:To elucidate the speciation mechanisms prevalent within hotspots of biodiversity, and the evolutionary processes behind the rise of their species-rich and endemic biota, we investigated the phylogeny of the giant fire-millipede genus Aphistogoniulus Silvestri, 1897, a Malagasy endemic. This study is the first comprehensive (molecular and morphological) phylogenetic study focusing on millipede (class Diplopoda) speciation on Madagascar. The morphological analysis is based on 35 morphological characters and incorporates ten described as well as two newly described species (A. rubrodorsalisn. sp. and A. jeekelin. sp.) of Aphistogoniulus. The molecular analysis is based on both mitochondrial (COI and 16S), and nuclear genes (complete 18S rDNA), together comprised of 3031 base pairs, which were successfully sequenced for 31 individual specimens and eight species of Aphistogoniulus. In addition to the null-model (speciation by distance), two diversification models, mountain refugia and ecotone shift, were discovered to play a role in the speciation of soil arthropods on Madagascar. Mountain refugia were important in the speciation of the A. cowani clade, with three species occurring in the Andringitra and Ranomafana Mountains in the southeast (A. cowani), the Ambohijanahary and Ambohitantely Mountains in the mid-west (A. sanguineus), and the Marojejy Mountain in the northeast (A. rubrodorsalisn. sp.). An ecotone shift from the eastern rainforest to the unique subarid spiny forest of Mahavelo was discovered in the A. vampyrus-A. aridus species-pair. In the monophyletic A. diabolicus clade, evidence for divergent evolution of sexual morphology was detected: species with greatly enlarged gonopods are sister-taxa to species with normal sized gonopods. Among the large-bodied Spirobolida genera of Madagascar, Colossobolus and Sanguinobolus were found to be close sister-genera to Aphistogoniulus. Forest destruction has caused forest corridors between populations to disappear, which might limit the possible resolution of biogeographic analyses on Madagascar.

Dataset Information

Geographic mode of speciation in a mountain specialist Avian family endemic to the Palearctic.

Publications

Geographic mode of speciation in a mountain specialist Avian family endemic to the Palearctic.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets