Unexpected post-glacial colonisation route explains the white colour of barn owls (Tyto alba) from the British Isles.
Details
Download: Machado et al. - 2022 - Unexpected post-glacial colonisation route explain.pdf (2934.88 [Ko])
State: Public
Version: Final published version
License: CC BY-NC 4.0
State: Public
Version: Final published version
License: CC BY-NC 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_59DDCB29C598
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Unexpected post-glacial colonisation route explains the white colour of barn owls (Tyto alba) from the British Isles.
Journal
Molecular ecology
ISSN
1365-294X (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0962-1083
Publication state
Published
Issued date
01/2022
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
31
Number
2
Pages
482-497
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Publication Status: ppublish
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
The climate fluctuations of the Quaternary shaped the movement of species in and out of glacial refugia. In Europe, the majority of species followed one of the described traditional postglacial recolonization routes from the southern peninsulas towards the north. Like most organisms, barn owls are assumed to have colonized the British Isles by crossing over Doggerland, a land bridge that connected Britain to northern Europe. However, while they are dark rufous in northern Europe, barn owls in the British Isles are conspicuously white, a contrast that could suggest selective forces are at play on the islands. Yet, our analysis of known candidate genes involved in coloration found no signature of selection. Instead, using whole genome sequences and species distribution modelling, we found that owls colonised the British Isles soon after the last glaciation, directly from a white coloured refugium in the Iberian Peninsula, before colonising northern Europe. They would have followed a hitherto unknown post-glacial colonization route to the Isles over a westwards path of suitable habitat in now submerged land in the Bay of Biscay, thus not crossing Doggerland. As such, they inherited the white colour of their Iberian founders and maintained it through low gene flow with the mainland that prevents the import of rufous alleles. Thus, we contend that neutral processes probably explain this contrasting white colour compared to continental owls. With the barn owl being a top predator, we expect future research will show this unanticipated route was used by other species from its paleo community.
Keywords
Animals, Color, Ecosystem, Europe, Refugium, Strigiformes/genetics, MC1R, demographic inference, plumage coloration, reference genome, species distribution modelling, whole-genome resequencing
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Funding(s)
Swiss National Science Foundation
University of Lausanne
Create date
06/11/2021 17:53
Last modification date
30/09/2022 7:10