Delimiting species without nuclear monophyly in Madagascar's mouse lemurs.

Weisrock, David W

Rasoloarison, Rodin M

Fiorentino, Isabella

Ralison, José M

Goodman, Steven M

Kappeler, Peter M

Yoder, Anne D

United States

2011-06-21T17:31:30Z

2010-03-31

BACKGROUND: Speciation begins when populations become genetically separated through a substantial reduction in gene flow, and it is at this point that a genetically cohesive set of populations attain the sole property of species: the independent evolution of a population-level lineage. The comprehensive delimitation of species within biodiversity hotspots, regardless of their level of divergence, is important for understanding the factors that drive the diversification of biota and for identifying them as targets for conservation. However, delimiting recently diverged species is challenging due to insufficient time for the differential evolution of characters--including morphological differences, reproductive isolation, and gene tree monophyly--that are typically used as evidence for separately evolving lineages. METHODOLOGY: In this study, we assembled multiple lines of evidence from the analysis of mtDNA and nDNA sequence data for the delimitation of a high diversity of cryptically diverged population-level mouse lemur lineages across the island of Madagascar. Our study uses a multi-faceted approach that applies phylogenetic, population genetic, and genealogical analysis for recognizing lineage diversity and presents the most thoroughly sampled species delimitation of mouse lemur ever performed. CONCLUSIONS: The resolution of a large number of geographically defined clades in the mtDNA gene tree provides strong initial evidence for recognizing a high diversity of population-level lineages in mouse lemurs. We find additional support for lineage recognition in the striking concordance between mtDNA clades and patterns of nuclear population structure. Lineages identified using these two sources of evidence also exhibit patterns of population divergence according to genealogical exclusivity estimates. Mouse lemur lineage diversity is reflected in both a geographically fine-scaled pattern of population divergence within established and geographically widespread taxa, as well as newly resolved patterns of micro-endemism revealed through expanded field sampling into previously poorly and well-sampled regions.

Version of Record

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20360988

1932-6203

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4534

eng

en_US

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

PLoS One

10.1371/journal.pone.0009883

Plos One

Animals

Bayes Theorem

Biodiversity

Biological Evolution

Cell Nucleus

Cheirogaleidae

DNA

DNA, Mitochondrial

Evolution, Molecular

Genetic Speciation

Genetics, Population

Geography

Madagascar

Phylogeny

Polymerase Chain Reaction

Species Specificity

Delimiting species without nuclear monophyly in Madagascar's mouse lemurs.

Journal article

Yoder, Anne D|0000-0002-1781-9552

2010-3-31

3

5

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20360988

e9883

3

Biology

Center for Population Health & Aging

Duke

Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Duke Population Research Institute

Duke Science & Society

Initiatives

Institutes and Provost's Academic Units

Sanford School of Public Policy

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

University Institutes and Centers

Published online

5