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Species Delimitation with Gene Flow.

Nathan D Jackson¹, Bryan C Carstens², Ariadna E Morales²

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 442 Hesler Biology Building, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.

Systematic Biology

|December 23, 2016

Summary

This study introduces Phylogeographic Inference using Approximate Likelihoods (PHRAPL) for species delimitation, accounting for both genetic drift and gene flow. PHRAPL accurately identifies species boundaries when gene flow is present, complementing existing methods.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary Biology
Genetics
Phylogeography

Background:

Species delimitation traditionally assumes evolutionary independence, often modeled by genetic drift.
Multispecies coalescent methods are common but frequently overlook gene flow between nascent species.
Gene flow can significantly impact lineage divergence and species boundary formation.

Purpose of the Study:

To apply Phylogeographic Inference using Approximate Likelihoods (PHRAPL) for species delimitation.
To develop a method that explicitly incorporates both genetic drift and gene flow in species delimitation.
To compare PHRAPL's performance against the popular Bayesian Phylogenetics for Bayesian Inference (BPP) method.

Main Methods:

Utilized PHRAPL, a phylogeographic model selection method.
Compared PHRAPL with BPP using simulated and empirical datasets.
Assessed model performance under scenarios with and without gene flow.

Main Results:

PHRAPL successfully infers correct demographic models when gene flow is present, given sufficient data.
The method shows potential for accurate species delimitation in systems with significant gene flow.
Model misspecification can occur when PHRAPL encounters isolation-only scenarios.

Conclusions:

PHRAPL offers a valuable addition to species delimitation techniques by explicitly modeling gene flow.
This approach is particularly beneficial for studying species complexes where gene flow is a significant evolutionary force.
Accurate species delimitation requires consideration of complex demographic processes like gene flow.