Disentangling the admixed trails of grey wolf evolution

The predominant phylogenetic patterns within a genome do not always reflect correctly the history of evolutionary divergence and speciation, and the true phylogenetic signal tends to be concentrated within low-recombination regions of the genome. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Hennelly et al. show that this is also the case for intraspecific relationships that are characterized by considerable gene flow between lineages. The study reconstructs the phylogenetic relationships of Indian and Tibetan wolves with other grey wolf (Canis lupus) populations worldwide, and demonstrates that these two populations represent phylogenetically distinct lineages. This inference was supported by using low-recombination regions of autosomal chromosomes and the X chromosome, which proved to be essential for correct inference of the lineage splitting order. Their study illustrates the power of analytical approaches that implement knowledge of genome evolution patterns to reconstruct complex intraspecific evolutionary relationships. The study also provides a compelling example of the application of modern phylogenomic approaches in the identification of evolutionarily significant units for the purpose of species conservation.

Automated summary

The study demonstrates that the true phylogenetic signal within a genome is concentrated in low-recombination regions, and information from these regions is essential for accurately inferring lineage splitting order. Their analytical approaches reveal the possibility of reconstructing complex intraspecific evolutionary relationships.