Genomic divergence landscape in recurrently hybridizing Chironomus sister taxa suggests stable steady state between mutual gene flow and isolation.

ABSTRACT: Divergence is mostly viewed as a progressive process often initiated by selection targeting individual loci, ultimately resulting in ever increasing genomic isolation due to linkage. However, recent studies show that this process may stall at intermediate stable equilibrium states without achieving complete genomic isolation. We tested the extent of genomic isolation between two recurrently hybridizing nonbiting midge sister taxa, Chironomus riparius and Chironomus piger, by analyzing the divergence landscape. Using a principal component-based method, we estimated that only about 28.44% of the genomes were mutually isolated, whereas the rest was still exchanged. The divergence landscape was fragmented into isolated regions of on average 30 kb, distributed throughout the genom

SUBMITTER: Schreiber D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7857304 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature