Genomic basis of homoploid hybrid speciation within chestnut trees

Hybridization can drive speciation. We examine the hypothesis that Castanea henryi var. omeiensis is an evolutionary lineage that originated from hybridization between two near-sympatric diploid taxa, C. henryi var. henryi and C. mollissima. We produce a high-quality genome assembly for mollissima and characterize evolutionary relationships among related chestnut taxa. Our results show that C. henryi var. omeiensis has a mosaic genome but has accumulated divergence in all 12 chromosomes. We observe positive correlation between admixture proportions and recombination rates across the genome. Candidate barrier genomic regions, which isolate var. henryi and mollissima, are re-assorted in the hybrid lineage. We further find that the putative barrier segments concentrate in genomic regions with less recombination, suggesting that interaction between natural selection and recombination shapes the evolution of hybrid genomes during hybrid speciation. This study highlights that reassortment of parental barriers is an important mechanism in generating biodiversity.