Abstract Detail

Phylogenomics

Crowl, Andrew [1], McVay, John [2], Hipp, Andrew [3], Manos, Paul [4].

Assessing the reticulate history of white oaks (Quercus) using hundreds of nuclear loci.

As the importance and prevalence of hybridization is increasingly recognized across diverse lineages of life, the tidy notion of a strictly bifurcating tree of life is being supplanted with the realization that evolutionary relationships in many groups may be better modeled as networks. This is perhaps illustrated nowhere better than in oaks, which have long been known to readily exchange genes across species boundaries. Using a phylogenomic dataset of nearly 500 nuclear loci, we assess evidence of cladogenesis and reticulation in a group notorious for hybridization: white oaks (Quercus sect. Quercus). We find support for at least two reticulation events within Eurasian and North American lineages: 1) historical gene flow between the Eurasian Roburoid lineage and an ancestors of the now-allopatric Quercus pontica, and 2) between the allopatric North American lineages Dumosae and Prinoideae. We further characterize the putatively introgressed loci by mapping them back to a genomic map. While recent gene flow between species is well documented in modern oaks, our analyses recover signal for multiple, ancient events. These results provide insights into the evolution of these ecological and economically important taxa and, at least partially, explain the difficulties of past studies' attempts to resolve evolutionary relationships within this group.

1 - Duke University, Biology, 330 Bio Sci Bldg, Durham, NC, 27708, United States
2 - Duke University, Biology, 330 Bio Sci Bldg, Durham, 27708
3 - The Morton Arboretum, 4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle, IL, 60532, United States
4 - Duke University, Biology, Science Drive, Box 90338, Box 90338, Durham, NC, 27708, United States

Keywords:
Quercus
Hybridization
Oaks
SNAQ
Introgression
gene flow
HybSeq.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 11, Phylogenomics II
Location: 114/Mayo Civic Center
Date: Monday, July 23rd, 2018
Time: 1:30 PM
Number: 11001
Abstract ID:740
Candidate for Awards:None