Dear colleagues, Our population genomics study on killer whales, in which analyse the genomes of 50 individuals to reconstruct demographic history, population structuring and adaptation to different habitats and diets is now deposited in the biorxix and can be accessed with this link: http://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/02/22/040295.
Andrew D. Foote, Nagarjun Vijay, María C. Ávila-Arcos, Robin W. Baird, John W. Durban, Matteo Fumagalli, Richard A. Gibbs, M. Bradley Hanson, Thorfinn S. Korneliussen, Michael D. Martin, Kelly. M. Robertson, Vitor C. Sousa, Filipe. G. Vieira, Tomáš Vinař1, Paul Wade, Kim C. Worley, Laurent Excoffier, Phillip. A. Morin, M. Thomas. P. Gilbert & Jochen. B.W. Wolf Genome-culture coevolution promotes rapid divergence in the killer whale. BioRxiv doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/040295 The interaction between ecology, culture and genome evolution remains poorly understood. Analysing population genomic data from killer whale ecotypes, which we estimate have globally radiated within less than 250,000 years, we show that genetic structuring including the segregation of potentially functional alleles is associated with socially inherited ecological niche. Reconstruction of ancestral demographic history revealed bottlenecks during founder events, likely promoting ecological divergence and genetic drift resulting in a wide range of genome-wide differentiation between pairs of allopatric and sympatric ecotypes. Functional enrichment analyses provided evidence for regional genomic divergence associated with habitat, dietary preferences and postzygotic reproductive isolation. Our findings are consistent with expansion of small founder groups into novel niches by an initial plastic behavioural response, perpetuated by social learning imposing an altered natural selection regime. The study constitutes an important step toward an understanding of the complex interaction between demographic history, culture, ecological adaptation and evolution at the genomic level. Best, Andy Dr. Andrew D. Foote Computational and Molecular Population Genetics (CMPG) lab Institute of Ecology and Evolution University of Bern Baltzerstrasse 6 Bern CH-3012 Switzerland +41 31 631 4549 andrew.fo...@iee.unibe.ch
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