Genome-wide admixture and ecological niche modelling reveal the maintenance of species boundaries despite long history of interspecific gene flow.

ABSTRACT: The maintenance of species boundaries despite interspecific gene flow has been a continuous source of interest in evolutionary biology. Many hybridizing species have porous genomes with regions impermeable to introgression, conferring reproductive barriers between species. We used ecological niche modelling to study the glacial and postglacial recolonization patterns between the widely hybridizing spruce species Picea glauca and P. engelmannii in western North America. Genome-wide estimates of admixture based on a panel of 311 candidate gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) from 290 genes were used to assess levels of admixture and introgression and to identify loci putatively involved in adaptive differences or reproductive barriers between species. Our palaeoclimatic modelling sugge

SUBMITTER: De La Torre AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4228761 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature