Demographics and divergence of the sibling species Chinese Grouse and Hazel Grouse inferred from whole genome sequencing

• The boreal forest is one of the largest biomes on earth, supporting thousands of species. The global climate fluctuations in the Quaternary, especially the ice ages, had a significant influence on the distribution of boreal forest, as well as the divergence and evolution of species inhabiting this biome. To provide insights into the role of recent ice ages in species divergence and population history in southern Eurasian boreal forests, we sequenced the genomes of 32 individuals from the sister species Hazel Grouse (Tetrastes bonasia) and Chinese Grouse (T. sewerzowi) and three representatives of outgroup species from Europe and China. Our results show very different population demographic histories between the sibling species. Using PSMC we show that the peak and bottleneck of effective population size (Ne) occurred at different times; the Hazel Grouse had a peak in the Mid-Pleistocene and a bottleneck during the Last Glacial Period, in contrast to the Chinese Grouse, which peaked with a larger population size after the Hazel Grouse. In addition, the northern population of Chinese Grouse inhabiting the Qilian Mountains became separated from the main population residing in the south and since then consistently showed lower effective population size than the southern population. The Hazel Grouse population in northern China had a higher effective population size at the peak of the Last Glacial Period compared to the European population, which appeared to have gone through a severe bottleneck. As revealed by MSMC modelling, both species have recently decreased and now have low effective population sizes. The results of this study, suggest that differences in the demographic processes that shaped the evolutionary history and distribution for both species, will contribute to the understanding of the biological processes affecting the fauna in boreal forests in Eurasia.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Evolutionsbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Evolutionary Biology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Genetik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Genetics (hsv//eng)

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