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Rocha JL, Vaz Pinto P, Siegismund HR, Meyer M, Jansen van Vuuren B, Veríssimo L, Ferrand N, Godinho R. African climate and geomorphology drive evolution and ghost introgression in sable antelope. Mol Ecol 2022; 31:2968-2984. [PMID: 35305042 DOI: 10.1111/mec.16427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2020] [Revised: 02/13/2022] [Accepted: 03/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
The evolutionary history of African ungulates has been largely explained in the light of Pleistocene climatic oscillations and the way these influenced the distribution of vegetation types, leading to range expansions and/or isolation in refugia. In contrast, comparatively fewer studies have addressed the continent's environmental heterogeneity and the role played by its geomorphological barriers. In this study, we performed a range-wide analysis of complete mitogenomes of sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) to explore how these different factors may have contributed as drivers of evolution in South-Central Africa. Our results supported two sympatric and deeply divergent mitochondrial lineages in west Tanzanian sables, which can be explained as the result of introgressive hybridization of a mitochondrial ghost lineage from an archaic, as-yet-undefined, congener. Phylogeographic subdivisions into three main lineages suggest that sable diversification may not have been solely driven by climatic events affecting populations differently across a continental scale. Often in interplay with climate, geomorphological features have also clearly shaped the species' patterns of vicariance, where the East Africa Rift System and the Eastern Arc Mountains acted as geological barriers. Subsequent splits among southern populations may be linked to rearrangements in the Zambezi system, possibly framing the most recent time when the river attained its current drainage profile. This work underscores how the use of comprehensive mitogenomic datasets on a model species with a wide geographic distribution can contribute to a much-enhanced understanding of environmental, geomorphological, and evolutionary patterns in Africa throughout the Quaternary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joana L Rocha
- CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal.,Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, 4169-007, Porto, Portugal
| | - Pedro Vaz Pinto
- CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal.,BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal.,TwinLab CIBIO/ISCED, Instituto Superior de Ciências da Educação da Huíla, Lubango, Angola.,Fundação Kissama, Rua Joaquim Capango 49, Luanda, Angola
| | - Hans R Siegismund
- Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2200, Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Matthias Meyer
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Bettine Jansen van Vuuren
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa
| | - Luís Veríssimo
- Fundação Kissama, Rua Joaquim Capango 49, Luanda, Angola
| | - Nuno Ferrand
- CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal.,Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, 4169-007, Porto, Portugal.,BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal.,TwinLab CIBIO/ISCED, Instituto Superior de Ciências da Educação da Huíla, Lubango, Angola.,Department of Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa
| | - Raquel Godinho
- CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal.,Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, 4169-007, Porto, Portugal.,BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal.,TwinLab CIBIO/ISCED, Instituto Superior de Ciências da Educação da Huíla, Lubango, Angola.,Department of Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa
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