Journal
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY
Volume 21, Issue 4, Pages 907-920Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2011.05384.x
Keywords
coalescent analysis; multilocus; Sitta carolinensis; speciation; species tree
Funding
- NSF [DEB 0814841, 0815705]
- National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), National Institutes of Health (NIH) [2 P20 RR016479]
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [0814841, 0815705] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Inferring the evolutionary and ecological processes that have shaped contemporary species distributions using the geographic distribution of gene lineages is the principal goal of phylogeographic research. Researchers in the field have recognized that inferences made from a single gene, often mitochondrial, can be informative regarding the pattern of diversification but lack conclusive information regarding the evolutionary mechanisms that led to the observed patterns. Here, we use a multilocus (20 loci) data set to explore the evolutionary history of the White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis). A previous single-locus study found S. carolinensis is comprised of four reciprocally monophyletic clades geographically restricted to the pine and oak forests of: (i) eastern North America, (ii) southern Rocky Mountain and Mexican Mountain ranges, (iii) Eastern Sierra Nevada and Northern Rocky Mountains and (iv) Pacific slope of North America. The diversification of the clades was attributed to the fragmentation of North American pine and oak woodlands in the Pliocene with subsequent divergences owing to the Pleistocene glacial cycles. Principal component, clustering and species tree analyses of the multilocus data resolved the same four groups or lineages found in the single-locus study. Coalescent analyses and hypothesis testing of nested isolation and migration models indicate that isolation and not gene flow has been the major evolutionary mechanism responsible for shaping genetic variation, and all the divergence events within S. carolinensis have occurred in response to the Pleistocene glacial cycles.
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