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New preprint: Ellen Nikelski et al. bioRxiv. See abstract...

August 9, 2021

Ellen Nikelski, Alexander S. Rubtsov, Darren Irwin. 2021. Mitonuclear co-introgression opposes genetic differentiation between phenotypically divergent songbirds. bioRxiv

Abstract
Comparisons of genomic variation among closely related species often show more differentiation in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and sex chromosomes than in autosomes, a pattern expected due to the relative effective population sizes of these genomic components. Differential introgression can cause some species pairs to deviate dramatically from this pattern. The yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) and the pine bunting (E. leucocephalos) are hybridizing avian sister species that differ greatly in appearance but show no mtDNA differentiation. This discordance might be explained by mtDNA introgression-a process that can select for co-introgression at nuclear genes with mitochondrial functions (mitonuclear genes). We investigated genome-wide nuclear differentiation between yellowhammers and pine buntings and compared it to what was seen previously in the mitochondrial genome. We found clear nuclear differentiation that was highly heterogeneous across the genome, with a particularly wide differentiation peak on the sex chromosome Z. We further tested for preferential introgression of mitonuclear genes and detected evidence for such biased introgression in yellowhammers. Mitonuclear co-introgression can remove post-zygotic incompatibilities between species and may contribute to the continued hybridization between yellowhammers and pine buntings despite their clear morphological and genetic differences. As such, our results highlight the potential ramifications of co-introgression in species evolution.

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