Continuation of the genetic divergence of ecological speciation by spatial environmental heterogeneity in island endemic plants.

ABSTRACT: Divergent selection plays a critical role not only as a speciation driver but also in maintaining post-speciation divergence. In the absence of direct evidence, ancestral interspecific gene flow between incipient species can reflect ancient selective pressure for ecological speciation. In the present study, two late-Pleistocene diverged species endemic to Taiwan, Scutellaria playfairii and S. tashiroi, were spatially and ecologically partitioned with partial overlap. Multilocus genome-scan analyses and in silico evaluation revealed ancestral interspecific gene flow but distinct genetic compositions, implying that adaptive divergence contributed to their speciation. Ecological niche modeling and principal component analysis suggested incomplete divergent niches between the two species; the

SUBMITTER: Huang BH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5511155 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature