A well-constrained estimate for the timing of the salmonid whole genome duplication reveals major decoupling from species diversification

Daniel John MacQueen, Ian Alistair Johnston

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Whole genome duplication (WGD) is often considered to be mechanistically associated with species diversification. Such ideas have been anecdotally attached to a WGD at the stem of the salmonid fish family, but remain untested. Here, we characterized an extensive set of gene paralogues retained from the salmonid WGD, in species covering the major lineages (subfamilies Salmoninae, Thymallinae and Coregoninae). By combining the data in calibrated relaxed molecular clock analyses, we provide the first well-constrained and direct estimate for the timing of the salmonid WGD. Our results suggest that the event occurred no later in time than 88 Ma and that 40–50 Myr passed subsequently until the subfamilies diverged. We also recovered a Thymallinae–Coregoninae sister relationship with maximal support. Comparative phylogenetic tests demonstrated that salmonid diversification patterns are closely allied in time with the continuous climatic cooling that followed the Eocene–Oligocene transition, with the highest diversification rates coinciding with recent ice ages. Further tests revealed considerably higher speciation rates in lineages that evolved anadromy—the physiological capacity to migrate between fresh and seawater—than in sister groups that retained the ancestral state of freshwater residency. Anadromy, which probably evolved in response to climatic cooling, is an established catalyst of genetic isolation, particularly during environmental perturbations (for example, glaciation cycles). We thus conclude that climate-linked ecophysiological factors, rather than WGD, were the primary drivers of salmonid diversification.
Original languageEnglish
Article number20132881
Number of pages8
JournalProceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Volume281
Issue number1778
Early online date22 Jan 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Mar 2014

Keywords

  • Whole genome duplication (WGD)
  • Species diversification
  • Salmonid fish
  • Climate change
  • Evolution
  • Anadromy

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