Dataset Information

Evidence for a bimodal distribution of hybrid indices in a hybrid zone with high admixture.

ABSTRACT: The genetic structure of a hybrid zone can provide insights into the relative roles of the various factors that maintain the zone. Here, we use a multilocus approach to characterize a hybrid zone between two subspecies of killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus, Walbaum 1792) found along the Atlantic coast of North America. We first analysed clinal variation along the Atlantic coast using a single-nucleotide polymorphism in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) displacement loop (D-loop) and a panel of nine nuclear microsatellite markers. A model constraining all clines to the same width and centre was not significantly different from a model in which the clines were allowed to vary independently. Locus-by-locus analysis indicated that the majority of nuclear clines shared the same centre as the mtDNA cline, and the widths of these clines were also narrower than that predicted by a neutral model, suggesting that selection is operating to maintain the hybrid zone. However, two of the nuclear clines had widths greater than the neutral prediction and had centres that were displaced relative to the mtDNA cline centre. We also found that a marsh located near the centre of the mtDNA cline demonstrated a bimodal distribution of nuclear hybrid index values, suggesting a deficit of first-generation hybrids and backcrossed genotypes. Thus, selection against hybrid genotypes may be playing a role in maintaining this hybrid zone and the associated steep nuclear and mtDNA clines.

SUBMITTER: McKenzie JL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4807441 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Evidence for a bimodal distribution of hybrid indices in a hybrid zone with high admixture.

McKenzie Jessica L JL Dhillon Rashpal S RS Schulte Patricia M PM

Royal Society open science 20151209 12

The genetic structure of a hybrid zone can provide insights into the relative roles of the various factors that maintain the zone. Here, we use a multilocus approach to characterize a hybrid zone between two subspecies of killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus, Walbaum 1792) found along the Atlantic coast of North America. We first analysed clinal variation along the Atlantic coast using a single-nucleotide polymorphism in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) displacement loop (D-loop) and a panel of nine nu ...[more]

PMID: 27019720

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Project description:Under different environmental conditions, hybridization between the same species might result in different patterns of genetic admixture. Particularly, species pairs with large distribution ranges and long evolutionary history may have experienced several independent hybridization events over time in different zones of overlap. In birds, the diverse hybrid populations of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and the Spanish sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis) provide a striking example. Throughout their range of sympatry, these two species do not regularly interbreed; however, a stabilized hybrid form (Passer italiae) exists on the Italian Peninsula and on several Mediterranean islands. The spatial distribution pattern on the Eurasian continent strongly contrasts the situation in North Africa, where house sparrows and Spanish sparrows occur in close vicinity of phenotypically intermediate populations across a broad mosaic hybrid zone. In this study, we investigate patterns of divergence and admixture among the two parental species, stabilized and nonstabilized hybrid populations in Italy and Algeria based on a mitochondrial marker, a sex chromosomal marker, and 12 microsatellite loci. In Algeria, despite strong spatial and temporal separation of urban early-breeding house sparrows and hybrids and rural late-breeding Spanish sparrows, we found strong genetic admixture of mitochondrial and nuclear markers across all study populations and phenotypes. That pattern of admixture in the North African hybrid zone is strikingly different from i) the Iberian area of sympatry where we observed only weak asymmetrical introgression of Spanish sparrow nuclear alleles into local house sparrow populations and ii) the very homogenous Italian sparrow population where the mitogenome of one parent (P. domesticus) and the Z-chromosomal marker of the other parent (P. hispaniolensis) are fixed. The North African sparrow hybrids provide a further example of enhanced hybridization along with recent urbanization and anthropogenic land-use changes in a mosaic landscape.

Dataset Information

Evidence for a bimodal distribution of hybrid indices in a hybrid zone with high admixture.

Publications

Evidence for a bimodal distribution of hybrid indices in a hybrid zone with high admixture.

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