TY - JOUR
T1 - Sympatric incipient speciation of spiny mice Acomys at "Evolution Canyon," Israel
AU - Hadid, Yarin
AU - Pavlíček, Tomáš
AU - Beiles, Avigdor
AU - Ianovici, Ron
AU - Raz, Shmuel
AU - Nevo, Eviatar
PY - 2014/1/21
Y1 - 2014/1/21
N2 - Does the paucity of empirical evidence of sympatric speciation in nature reflect reality, despite theoretical support? Or is it due to inappropriate searches in nature with overly restrictive assumptions and an incorrect null hypothesis? Spiny mice, Acomys, described here at Evolution Canyon (EC) incipiently and sympatrically speciate owing to microclimatic interslope divergence. The opposite slopes at EC vary dramatically, physically and biotically, representing the dry and hot south-facing slope savannoid-African continent ["African" slope (AS)], abutting with the north-facing slope forested south-European continent ["European" slope (ES)]. African-originated spiny mice, of the Acomys cahirinus complex, colonized Israel 30,000 y ago based on fossils. Genotypically, we showed significantly higher genetic diversity of mtDNA and amplified fragment length polymorphism of Acomys on the AS compared with the ES. This is also true regionally across Israel. In complete mtDNA, 25% of the haplotypes at EC were slope-biased. Phenotypically, the opposite slope's populations also showed adaptive morphology, physiology, and behavior divergence paralleling regional populations across Israel. Preliminary tests indicate slope-specific mate choices. Colonization of Acomys at the EC first occurred on the AS and then moved to the ES. Strong slopespecific natural selection (both positive and negative) overrules low interslope gene flow. Both habitat slope selection and mate choices suggest ongoing incipient sympatric speciation. We conclude that Acomys at the EC is ecologically and genetically adaptively, incipiently, sympatrically speciating on the ES owing to adaptive microclimatic natural selection.
AB - Does the paucity of empirical evidence of sympatric speciation in nature reflect reality, despite theoretical support? Or is it due to inappropriate searches in nature with overly restrictive assumptions and an incorrect null hypothesis? Spiny mice, Acomys, described here at Evolution Canyon (EC) incipiently and sympatrically speciate owing to microclimatic interslope divergence. The opposite slopes at EC vary dramatically, physically and biotically, representing the dry and hot south-facing slope savannoid-African continent ["African" slope (AS)], abutting with the north-facing slope forested south-European continent ["European" slope (ES)]. African-originated spiny mice, of the Acomys cahirinus complex, colonized Israel 30,000 y ago based on fossils. Genotypically, we showed significantly higher genetic diversity of mtDNA and amplified fragment length polymorphism of Acomys on the AS compared with the ES. This is also true regionally across Israel. In complete mtDNA, 25% of the haplotypes at EC were slope-biased. Phenotypically, the opposite slope's populations also showed adaptive morphology, physiology, and behavior divergence paralleling regional populations across Israel. Preliminary tests indicate slope-specific mate choices. Colonization of Acomys at the EC first occurred on the AS and then moved to the ES. Strong slopespecific natural selection (both positive and negative) overrules low interslope gene flow. Both habitat slope selection and mate choices suggest ongoing incipient sympatric speciation. We conclude that Acomys at the EC is ecologically and genetically adaptively, incipiently, sympatrically speciating on the ES owing to adaptive microclimatic natural selection.
KW - Adaptation
KW - Ecological-speciation
KW - Microscale
KW - Rodents
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84892923873&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1322301111
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1322301111
M3 - Article
C2 - 24402169
AN - SCOPUS:84892923873
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 111
SP - 1043
EP - 1048
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 3
ER -