TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kumar, Vikas
A1  - Lammers, Fritjof
A1  - Bidon, Tobias
A1  - Pfenninger, Markus
A1  - Kolter, Lydia
A1  - Nilsson, Maria Anna
A1  - Janke, Axel
T1  - The evolutionary history of bears is characterized by gene flow across species
T2  - Scientific reports
N2  - Bears are iconic mammals with a complex evolutionary history. Natural bear hybrids and studies of few nuclear genes indicate that gene flow among bears may be more common than expected and not limited to polar and brown bears. Here we present a genome analysis of the bear family with representatives of all living species. Phylogenomic analyses of 869 mega base pairs divided into 18,621 genome fragments yielded a well-resolved coalescent species tree despite signals for extensive gene flow across species. However, genome analyses using different statistical methods show that gene flow is not limited to closely related species pairs. Strong ancestral gene flow between the Asiatic black bear and the ancestor to polar, brown and American black bear explains uncertainties in reconstructing the bear phylogeny. Gene flow across the bear clade may be mediated by intermediate species such as the geographically wide-spread brown bears leading to large amounts of phylogenetic conflict. Genome-scale analyses lead to a more complete understanding of complex evolutionary processes. Evidence for extensive inter-specific gene flow, found also in other animal species, necessitates shifting the attention from speciation processes achieving genome-wide reproductive isolation to the selective processes that maintain species divergence in the face of gene flow.
Y1  - 2017
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/43251
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-432512
SN  - 2045-2322
N1  - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. © The Author(s) 2017
VL  - 7
IS  - Art. 46487
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - Nature Publishing Group
CY  - London
ER  -