TY  - JOUR
A1  - Raad, Jordi de
A1  - Päckert, Martin
A1  - Irestedt, Martin
A1  - Janke, Axel
A1  - Kryukov, Alexey P.
A1  - Nilsson, Maria A.
T1  - Speciation and population divergence in a mutualistic seed dispersing bird
T2  - Communications biology
N2  - Bird-mediated seed dispersal is crucial for the regeneration and viability of ecosystems, often resulting in complex mutualistic species networks. Yet, how this mutualism drives the evolution of seed dispersing birds is still poorly understood. In the present study we combine whole genome re-sequencing analyses and morphometric data to assess the evolutionary processes that shaped the diversification of the Eurasian nutcracker (Nucifraga), a seed disperser known for its mutualism with pines (Pinus). Our results show that the divergence and phylogeographic patterns of nutcrackers resemble those of other non-mutualistic passerine birds and suggest that their early diversification was shaped by similar biogeographic and climatic processes. The limited variation in foraging traits indicates that local adaptation to pines likely played a minor role. Our study shows that close mutualistic relationships between bird and plant species might not necessarily act as a primary driver of evolution and diversification in resource-specialized birds.
KW  - Coevolution
KW  - Phylogenetics
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/75130
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-751307
SN  - 2399-3642
N1  - Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
N1  - We thank the Erika und Walter Datz-Stiftung for providing additional financial support for the project. Lastly, the present study is a result of the Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE-TBG) and was supported through the programme ‘LOEWE – Landes-Offensive zur Entwicklung Wissenschaftlich-ökonomischer Exzellenz’ of Hesse’s Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts.
N1  - The data produced in the current study are available at the NCBI Sequence Read Archive under BioProject PRJNA682958 accession numbers SAMN17014695–SAMN17014724. The raw 10X genomics sequencing data used for the nutcracker reference assembly have been deposited at NCBI under accession number SAMN17050349. All supporting data are uploaded to Dryad, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.stqjq2c57
VL  - 5
IS  - art. 429
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - Spinger Nature
CY  - London
ER  -