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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Evidence of linked selection on the Z chromosome of hybridizing hummingbirds

Christopher J. Battey

E-mail address: cbattey2@uoregon.edu

Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 97403‐1201

Current Address: Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403

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First published: 20 December 2019

Abstract

Levels of genetic differentiation vary widely along the genomes of recently diverged species. What processes cause this variation? Here, I analyze geographic population structure and genome‐wide patterns of variation in the Rufous, Allen's, and Calliope Hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus/Selasphorus sasin/Selasphorus calliope) and assess evidence that linked selection on the Z chromosome drives patterns of genetic differentiation in a pair of hybridizing species. Demographic models, introgression tests, and genotype clustering analyses support a reticulate evolutionary history consistent with divergence during the late Pleistocene followed by gene flow across migrant Rufous and Allen's Hummingbirds during the Holocene. Relative genetic differentiation (urn:x-wiley:00143820:media:evo13888:evo13888-math-0002) is elevated, and within‐population diversity (π) is depressed on the Z chromosome in all interspecific comparisons. The ratio of Z to autosomal within‐population diversity is much lower than that expected from population size effects alone, and Tajima's D is depressed on the Z chromosome in S. rufus and S. calliope. These results suggest that conserved structural features of the genome play a prominent role in shaping genetic differentiation through the early stages of speciation in northern Selasphorus hummingbirds, and that the Z chromosome is a likely site of genes underlying behavioral and morphological variation in the group.

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