TY  - JOUR
A1  - Árnason, Úlfur
A1  - Lammers, Fritjof
A1  - Kumar, Vikas
A1  - Nilsson, Maria Anna
A1  - Janke, Axel
T1  - Whole-genome sequencing of the blue whale and other rorquals finds signatures for introgressive gene flow
T2  - Science advances
N2  - Reconstructing the evolution of baleen whales (Mysticeti) has been problematic because morphological and genetic analyses have produced different scenarios. This might be caused by genomic admixture that may have taken place among some rorquals. We present the genomes of six whales, including the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), to reconstruct a species tree of baleen whales and to identify phylogenetic conflicts. Evolutionary multilocus analyses of 34,192 genome fragments reveal a fast radiation of rorquals at 10.5 to 7.5 million years ago coinciding with oceanic circulation shifts. The evolutionarily enigmatic gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) is placed among rorquals, and the blue whale genome shows a high degree of heterozygosity. The nearly equal frequency of conflicting gene trees suggests that speciation of rorqual evolution occurred under gene flow, which is best depicted by evolutionary networks. Especially in marine environments, sympatric speciation might be common; our results raise questions about how genetic divergence can be established.
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/46290
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-462905
SN  - 2375-2548
N1  - This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
VL  - 4
IS  - 4, eaap9873
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - Assoc.
CY  - Washington, DC [u. a.]
ER  -