Disentangling the admixed trails of grey wolf evolution

Abstract

The predominant phylogenetic patterns within a genome do not always reflect correctly the history of evolutionary divergence and speciation, and the true phylogenetic signal tends to be concentrated within low‐recombination regions of the genome. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Hennelly et al. show that this is also the case for intraspecific relationships that are characterized by considerable gene flow between lineages. The study reconstructs the phylogenetic relationships of Indian and Tibetan wolves with other grey wolf (Canis lupus) populations worldwide, and demonstrates that these two populations represent phylogenetically distinct lineages. This inference was supported by using low‐recombination regions of autosomal chromosomes and the X chromosome, which proved to be essential for correct inference of the lineage splitting order. Their study illustrates the power of analytical approaches that implement knowledge of genome evolution patterns to reconstruct complex intraspecific evolutionary relationships. The study also provides a compelling example of the application of modern phylogenomic approaches in the identification of evolutionarily significant units for the purpose of species conservation.

Range‐wide evolutionary relationships and historical demography of brown bears (Ursus arctos) revealed by whole‐genome sequencing of isolated central Asian populations

“…In the southern range, the Gobi and Himalayan brown bears are monophyletic sister groups that share a common lineage. This evolutionary pattern has also been found in the grey wolf ( Canus lupus ), another Holarctic‐distributed carnivore, which showed early divergent clades in the southern range, including Tibetan and Indian wolves (Pilot, 2021). Similarly, snow leopards ( Uncia uncia ) also showed genetic differentiation among northern (Mongolia), central (Himalaya and Tibetan plateau), and western (Tian Shan and Pamir) populations, each of which is considered subspecies (Janecka et al, 2017).…”

Drivers of neutral and adaptive differentiation in pike (Esox lucius) populations from contrasting environments

“…Phylogenetic reconstructions using genome‐wide data may result in unresolved trees because gene flow and recombination events conceal some of the evolutionary history (Edelman et al, 2019; Zhang et al, 2021). The use of more dense SNP data, longer reads, or filtering of loci from low‐recombination regions of the genome could be better at detecting the phylogenetic signals and provide a higher resolution (Cariou et al, 2013; Pilot, 2021).…”