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- Leneveu, Julien, et al.
(författare)
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Varying rates of diversification in the genus Melitaea (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) during the past 20 million years
- 2009
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Ingår i: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0024-4066 .- 1095-8312. ; 97:2, s. 346-361
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The influence of Quarternary glacial cycles on the extant diversity of Holarctic species has been intensively studied. It has been hypothesized that palaeoclimatic changes are responsible for divergence events in lineages. A constant improvement in DNA sequencing and modeling methods, as well as palaeoclimatic reconstruction, permit a deeper exploration of general causes of speciation in geological time. In the present study, we sampled, as exhaustively as possible, the butterflies belonging to the genus Melitaea (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), which are widely spread in the Palaearctic region. We conducted analyses to assess the phylogeny of the genus and estimated the timing of divergence and the most likely distribution of ancestral populations. The results obtained indicate that the systematics of the genus is in need of revision and that the diversity of the genus has been profoundly shaped by palaeoenvironmental changes during its evolutionary history. The present study also emphasizes that, when employed with caveats, major palaeoenvironmental events could represent very powerful tools for the calibration of the dating of divergences using molecular data.
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| 2. |
- Tunström, Kalle, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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Evidence for a single, ancient origin of a genus-wide alternative life history strategy
- 2023
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Ingår i: Science Advances. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 2375-2548. ; 9:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding the evolutionary origins and factors maintaining alternative life history strategies (ALHS) within species is a major goal of evolutionary research. While alternative alleles causing discrete ALHS are expected to purge or fix over time, one-third of the ~90 species of Colias butterflies are polymorphic for a female-limited ALHS called Alba. Whether Alba arose once, evolved in parallel, or has been exchanged among taxa is currently unknown. Using comparative genome-wide association study (GWAS) and population genomic analyses, we placed the genetic basis of Alba in time-calibrated phylogenomic framework, revealing that Alba evolved once near the base of the genus and has been subsequently maintained via introgression and balancing selection. CRISPR-Cas9 mutagenesis was then used to verify a putative cis-regulatory region of Alba, which we identified using phylogenetic foot printing. We hypothesize that this cis-regulatory region acts as a modular enhancer for the induction of the Alba ALHS, which has likely facilitated its long evolutionary persistence.
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