Streicher, JW;
Day, JJ;
(2020)
The toad's warts: Discordance creates bumpy expectations of mitochondrial-nuclear evolution between species.
Molecular Ecology
, 29
(18)
pp. 3400-3402.
10.1111/mec.15568.
Preview |
Text
mec.15568.pdf - Published Version Download (485kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Discordance between the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes is a prevalent phenomenon in nature, in which the underlying processes responsible are considered to be important in shaping genetic variation in natural populations. Among the evolutionary processes that best explain such genomic mismatches incomplete lineage sorting and introgression are commonly identified, however, many studies are unable to distinguish between these hypotheses, which has become a major challenge in the field. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Firneno et al. (2020) present an elegant exploration of mitochondrial‐nuclear discordance in Mesoamerican toads. Integrating genome‐scale and spatial data to test between these hypotheses within an empirical model testing framework, they find strong support that incomplete lineage sorting explains the observed discordance. Their work, along with many previous articles in Molecular Ecology, highlights the commonality of mito‐nuclear discordance among species despite the expectations of tightly concerted mitochondrial and nuclear genome evolution. It is increasingly clear that the nuclear genomes of many species are (at least for short periods of evolutionary time) functionally compatible with multiple, divergent mitochondrial haplotypes. As such, we suggest future research not only seeks to understand the processes causing spatial mito‐nuclear discordance (e.g. incomplete lineage sorting, introgression), but also explores those that maintain discordance through time and space (e.g. relaxed selection on mito‐nuclear interactions, heterozygosity, population demographics). We also discuss the vital role that taxonomy plays in interpreting patterns of mito‐nuclear discordance when data‐consistent yet differing taxonomies are used, such as treating allopatrically distributed taxa as multiple isolated populations versus multiple micro‐endemic species.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The toad's warts: Discordance creates bumpy expectations of mitochondrial-nuclear evolution between species |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/mec.15568 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15568 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2020 The Authors. Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Amphibians, cytonuclear interactions, incomplete lineage sorting, introgression, phylogeography, population genetics, spatial discordance, systematics |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10127130 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
