Genomic associations with bill length and disease reveal drift and selection across island bird populations.

ABSTRACT: Island species provide excellent models for investigating how selection and drift operate in wild populations, and for determining how these processes act to influence local adaptation and speciation. Here, we examine the role of selection and drift in shaping genomic and phenotypic variation across recently separated populations of Berthelot's pipit (Anthus berthelotii), a passerine bird endemic to three archipelagos in the Atlantic. We first characterized genetic diversity and population structuring that supported previous inferences of a history of recent colonizations and bottlenecks. We then tested for regions of the genome associated with the ecologically important traits of bill length and malaria infection, both of which vary substantially across populations in this species.

SUBMITTER: Armstrong C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6121843 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature