Genomic insights into the evolutionary relationships and demographic history of kiwi

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Kiwi are a unique and emblematic group of birds endemic to New Zealand. Deep-time evolutionary relationships among the five extant kiwi species have been difficult to resolve, in part due to the absence of pre-Quaternary fossils to inform speciation events. Here, we utilise single representative nuclear genomes of all five extant kiwi species (great spotted kiwi, little spotted kiwi, Okarito brown kiwi, North Island brown kiwi, and southern brown kiwi) and investigate their evolutionary histories with phylogenomic, genetic diversity, and deep-time (past million years) demographic analyses. We uncover relatively low levels of gene-tree phylogenetic discordance across the genomes, suggesting clear distinction between species. However, we also find indications of post-divergence gene flow, concordant with recent reports of interspecific hybrids. The four species for which unbiased levels of genetic diversity could be calculated, due to the availability of reference assemblies (all species except the southern brown kiwi), show relatively low levels of genetic diversity, which we suggest reflects a combination of older environmental as well as more recent anthropogenic influence. In addition, we suggest hypotheses regarding the impact of known past environmental events, such as volcanic eruptions and glacial periods, on the similarities and differences observed in the demographic histories of the five kiwi species over the past million years.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummere0266430
TidsskriftPLoS ONE
Vol/bind17
Udgave nummer10
Antal sider17
ISSN1932-6203
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Independent Research Fund Denmark | Natural Sciences, Forskningsprojekt 1, grant no. 8021-00218B, and the Villum Fonden Young Investigator Programme, grant no. 13151, to EDL. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We would like to acknowledge the Te Parawhau Trust and Waikaremoana iwi, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, Te Ātiawa Manawhenua Ki Te Tau Ihu Trust, who provided guidance to the authors who generated the kiwi genomic data, on which our study is based. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their comments on improving the manuscript. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Westbury et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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