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Abstract The ecological and phenotypic diversity observed in oceanic island radiations presents an evolutionary paradox: a high level of genetic variation is typically required for diversification, but species colonizing a new island commonly suffer from founder effects. This reduction in population size leads to lower genetic diversity, which ultimately results in a reduction in the efficiency of natural selection. What then is the source of genetic variation which acts as the raw material for ecological and phenotypic diversification in oceanic archipelagos? Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile genetic elements that have been linked to the generation of genetic diversity, and evidence suggests that TE activity and accumulation along the genome can result from reductions in population size. Here, we use the Hawaiian spiny-leg spider radiation (Tetragnatha) to test whether TE accumulation increases due to demographic processes associated with island colonization. We sequenced and quantified TEs in 23 individuals representing 16 species from the spiny-leg radiation and four individuals from its sister radiation, the Hawaiian web-building Tetragnatha. Our results show that founder effects resulting from colonization of new islands have not resulted in TE accumulation over evolutionary time. Specifically, we found no evidence for an increase in abundance of specific TE superfamilies, nor an accumulation of ‘young TEs’ in lineages which have recently colonized a new island or are present in islands with active volcanoes. We also found that the DNA/hAT transposon superfamily is by far the most abundant TE superfamily in the Tetragnatha radiation. This work shows that there is no clear trend of increasing TE abundance for the spiny-leg radiation across the archipelago chronosequence, and TE accumulation is not affected by population oscillations associated with island colonization events. Therefore, despite their known role in the generation of genetic diversity, TE activity does not appear to be the mechanism explaining the evolutionary paradox of insular diversification in the Tetragnatha spiny-leg radiation.
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Multiple paths toward repeated phenotypic evolution in the spiny‐leg adaptive radiation ( Tetragnatha ; Hawai'i)
Abstract The repeated evolution of phenotypes provides clear evidence for the role of natural selection in driving evolutionary change. However, the evolutionary origin of repeated phenotypes can be difficult to disentangle as it can arise from a combination of factors such as gene flow, shared ancestral polymorphisms or mutation. Here, we investigate the presence of these evolutionary processes in the Hawaiian spiny‐leg Tetragnatha adaptive radiation, which includes four microhabitat‐specialists or ecomorphs, with different body pigmentation and size (Green, Large Brown, Maroon, and Small Brown). We investigated the evolutionary history of this radiation using 76 newly generated low‐coverage, whole‐genome resequenced samples, along with phylogenetic and population genomic tools. Considering the Green ecomorph as the ancestral state, our results suggest that the Green ecomorph likely re‐evolved once, the Large Brown and Maroon ecomorphs evolved twice and the Small Brown evolved three times. We found that the evolution of the Maroon and Small Brown ecomorphs likely involved ancestral hybridization events, while the Green and Large Brown ecomorphs likely evolved through novel mutations, despite a high rate of incomplete lineage sorting in the dataset. Our findings demonstrate that the repeated evolution of ecomorphs in the Hawaiian spiny‐leg Tetragnatha is influenced by multiple evolutionary processes.
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- PAR ID:
- 10465929
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Molecular Ecology
- Volume:
- 32
- Issue:
- 18
- ISSN:
- 0962-1083
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 4971 to 4985
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17082
