RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Ecology, molecules and colour: Multivariate species delimitation and conservation of Harlequin poison frogs
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 050922
DO 10.1101/050922
A1 Andres Posso-Terranova
A1 Jose A. Andres
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/28/050922.abstract
AB We propose a iterative protocol for delimiting species under the generalized lineage concept (GLC) based on the multivariate clustering of morphological, ecological, and genetic data. Our rationale is that the resulting groups should correspond to evolutionarily independent metapopulation lineages because they reflect the common signal of different secondary defining properties (ecological and genetic distinctiveness, morphological diagnosability, etc.), implying the existence of barriers preventing or limiting gene exchange. We applied this method to study a group of highly endangered poison frogs, the Oophaga histrionica complex. In our study case, we use next generation targeted amplicon sequencing to obtain a robust genetic dataset that we then combined with patterns of morphological and ecological divergence. Our analyses revealed the existence of at least five different species in the histrionica complex (three of them new to science) occurring in very small isolated populations outside any protected areas. More broadly, our study exemplifies how transcriptome-based reduction of genomic complexity and multivariate statistical techniques can be integrated to successfully identify species and their boundaries.In memoriam “I propose that each species has a distinctive life history, which include a series of stages that correspond to some of the named species concepts”Richard G. Harrison1945-2016