Low but contrasting neutral genetic differentiation shaped by winter temperature in European great tits

Gene flow is usually thought to reduce genetic divergence and impede local adaptation by homogenising gene pools between populations. However, evidence for local adaptation and phenotypic differentiation in highly mobile species, experiencing high levels of gene flow, is emerging. Assessing population genetic structure at different spatial scales is thus a crucial step towards understanding mechanisms underlying intraspecific differentiation and diversification. Here, we studied the population genetic structure of a highly mobile species – the great tit Parus major – at different spatial scales. We analysed 884 individuals from 30 sites across Europe including 10 close-by sites (< 50 km), using 22 microsatellite markers. Overall we found a low but significant genetic differentiation among sites (FST = 0.008). Genetic differentiation was higher, and genetic diversity lower, in south-western Europe. These regional differences were statistically best explained by winter temperature. Overall, our results suggest that great tits form a single patchy metapopulation across Europe, in which genetic differentiation is independent of geographical distance and gene flow may be regulated by environmental factors via movements related to winter severity. This might have important implications for the evolutionary trajectories of sub-populations, especially in the context of climate change, and calls for future investigations of local differences in costs and benefits of philopatry at large scales

Tradeoff between robustness and elaboration in carotenoid networks produces cycles of avian color diversification

BACKGROUND: Resolution of the link between micro- and macroevolution calls for comparing both processes on the same deterministic landscape, such as genomic, metabolic or fitness networks. We apply this perspective to the evolution of carotenoid pigmentation that produces spectacular diversity in avian colors and show that basic structural properties of the underlying carotenoid metabolic network are reflected in global patterns of elaboration and diversification in color displays. Birds color themselves by consuming and metabolizing several dietary carotenoids from the environment. Such fundamental dependency on the most upstream external compounds should intrinsically constrain sustained evolutionary elongation of multi-step metabolic pathways needed for color elaboration unless the metabolic network gains robustness - the ability to synthesize the same carotenoid from an additional dietary starting point. RESULTS: We found that gains and losses of metabolic robustness were associated with evolutionary cycles of elaboration and stasis in expressed carotenoids in birds. Lack of metabolic robustness constrained lineage's metabolic explorations to the immediate biochemical vicinity of their ecologically distinct dietary carotenoids, whereas gains of robustness repeatedly resulted in sustained elongation of metabolic pathways on evolutionary time scales and corresponding color elaboration. CONCLUSIONS: The structural link between length and robustness in metabolic pathways may explain periodic convergence of phylogenetically distant and ecologically distinct species in expressed carotenoid pigmentation; account for stasis in carotenoid colors in some ecological lineages; and show how the connectivity of the underlying metabolic network provides a mechanistic link between microevolutionary elaboration and macroevolutionary diversification. REVIEWERS: This article was reviewed by Junhyong Kim, Eugene Koonin, and Fyodor Kondrashov. For complete reports, see the Reviewers' reports section.This item is part of the UA Faculty Publications collection. For more information this item or other items in the UA Campus Repository, contact the University of Arizona Libraries at [email protected]

AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds

Functional traits offer a rich quantitative framework for developing and testing theories in evolutionary biology, ecology and ecosystem science. However, the potential of functional traits to drive theoretical advances and refine models of global change can only be fully realised when species‐level information is complete. Here we present the AVONET dataset containing comprehensive functional trait data for all birds, including six ecological variables, 11 continuous morphological traits, and information on range size and location. Raw morphological measurements are presented from 90,020 individuals of 11,009 extant bird species sampled from 181 countries. These data are also summarised as species averages in three taxonomic formats, allowing integration with a global phylogeny, geographical range maps, IUCN Red List data and the eBird citizen science database. The AVONET dataset provides the most detailed picture of continuous trait variation for any major radiation of organisms, offering a global template for testing hypotheses and exploring the evolutionary origins, structure and functioning of biodiversity

Comprehensive molecular phylogeny of barn owls and relatives (Family: Tytonidae), and their six major Pleistocene radiations.

The owl family Tytonidae comprises two genera: Phodilus, limited to the forests of central Africa and South-East Asia, and the ubiquitous Tyto. The genus Tyto is majorly represented by the cosmopolitan Common Barn Owl group, with more than 30 subspecies worldwide. Discrete differences in body size and plumage colouration have led to the classification of this family into many species and subspecies, but the taxonomic status and phylogenetic relationships between taxa remain unclear, and in some groups controversial. Although several previous studies attempted to resolve this problem, they have been limited in their taxonomic and geographical coverage, or have relied on restricted molecular evidence and low sample sizes. Based on the most comprehensive sampling to date (16 out of 17 Tyto species, and one out of three Phodilus species), a multi-locus approach using seven mitochondrial and two nuclear markers, and taking advantage of field data and museum collections available worldwide, our main questions in this study were: (1) what are the phylogenetic relationships and classification status of the whole family; (2) when and where did the most important speciation events occur? We confirm that the Common Barn Owl, Tyto alba is divided into three main evolutionary units: the American Barn Owl, T. furcata; the Western Barn Owl, T. alba; and the Eastern Barn Owl, T. javanica, and suggest a Late Miocene (ca. 6 mya) Australasian and African origin of the group. Our results are supported by fossil age information, given that the most recent common ancestor between the Tytonidae genera Phodilus and Tyto was probably from the Oligocene (ca. 28 mya) of Australasia. We finally reveal six major Pleistocene radiations of Tyto, all resulting in wide-range distributions

Museum archives revisited: Central Asiatic hawkmoths reveal exceptionally high late Pliocene species diversification (Lepidoptera, Sphingidae)

Three high‐elevation Hyles species of Central Asia have proven difficult to sample, and thus, only a limited number of specimens are available for study. Ancient DNA techniques were applied to sequence two mitochondrial genes from ‘historic’ museum specimens of Hyles gallii, Hyles renneri and Hyles salangensis to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships of these species. This approach enabled us to include the holotypes and paratypes. The status of H. salangensis as a species endemic to a mountain range north of Kabul in Afghanistan is confirmed by this study. It is most closely related to Hyles nicaea and H. gallii, and quite distant from the clade comprising the species from Hyles vespertilio to Hyles tithymali, despite this group and H. salangensis both completely lacking an arolium on the pretarsus. Our results show that the samples assigned to H. renneri and Hyles livornica tatsienluica are conspecific and so we reinstate Hyles tatsienluica stat. nov. as the valid name for this species and synonymize H. renneri syn. nov. with it. This study shows that the distribution range postulated for H. tatsienluica extends from Nepal well into the mountains of south‐western China. The distribution ranges of H. livornica and H. tatsienluica overlap. The study confirms the previously proposed synonymies of Hyles nepalensis, Hyles gallii intermedia and Hyles gallii tibetanica with H. gallii. Extensive species sampling (over 80% of Hyles species) in this study allowed additional analyses. The dated phylogeny reveals the global Hyles hawkmoth radiation to be much more recent than previously thought: it began in the Late Miocene and culminated in a Pleistocene burst of diversification in the Northern Hemisphere. Ancestral ranges of basal nodes were reconstructed as highly equivocal, but the Neotropics has the highest probability in the two oldest nodes. Although the origins of the Madagascan and Australian species also remain ambiguous, a large crown clade of fifteen species was reconstructed to have originated in the Palaearctic. The wide distribution ranges of the two migratory species, H. livornica and H. gallii, appear to blur any traces of the biogeographic origin of the clades containing these species. Specialization in larval host plant use onto particular plant families from the ancestral condition ‘polyphagous’ may have led to an increased rate of speciation and phylogenetic diversification in three subgroups of Hyles (the Hawaiian clade, the Hyles centralasiae group and the Hyles euphorbiae complex).This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Hundsdoerfer, A.K., Päckert, M., Kehlmaier, C., Strutzenberger, P. & Kitching, I.J. ( 2017). Museum archives revisited: central Asiatic hawkmoths reveal exceptionally high late Pliocene species diversification (Lepidoptera, Sphingidae). —Zoologica Scripta, 46, 552– 570, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/zsc.12235. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. You are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from the article or view supporting information