Speciation Journal Club: Speciation by genome duplication

This Thursday, at the Speciation Journal Club, we will discuss a paper on Speciation by genome duplication by Vallejo-Marin et al. published in 2015 in Evolution.

Speciation by genome duplication: Repeated origins and genomic composition of the recently formed allopolyploid species Mimulus peregrinus

 

 

Abstract:

Whole genome duplication (polyploidization) is a mechanism of “instantaneous” species formation that has played a major role in the evolutionary history of plants. Much of what we know about the early evolution of polyploids is based upon studies of a handful of recently formed species. A new polyploid hybrid (allopolyploid) species Mimulus peregrinus, formed within the last 140 years, was recently discovered on the Scottish mainland and corroborated by chromosome counts. Here, using targeted, high-depth sequencing of 1200 genic regions, we confirm the parental origins of this new species from M. x robertsii, a sterile triploid hybrid between the two introduced species M. guttatus and M. luteus that are naturalized and widespread in the United Kingdom. We also report a new population of M. peregrinus on the Orkney Islands and demonstrate that populations on the Scottish mainland and Orkney Islands arose independently via genome duplication from local populations of M. x robertsii. Our data raise the possibility that some alleles are already being lost in the evolving M. peregrinus genomes. The recent origins of a new species of the ecological model genus Mimulus via allopolyploidization provide a powerful opportunity to explore the early stages of hybridization and genome duplication in naturally evolved lineages.

 

Published Nov. 29, 2017 1:32 PM - Last modified Mar. 8, 2021 10:56 AM