TY - JOUR

T1 - African climate and geomorphology drive evolution and ghost introgression in sable antelope

AU - Rocha, Joana L.

AU - Vaz Pinto, Pedro

AU - Siegismund, Hans R.

AU - Meyer, Matthias

AU - Jansen van Vuuren, Bettine

AU - Veríssimo, Luís

AU - Ferrand, Nuno

AU - Godinho, Raquel

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - The evolutionary history of African ungulates has been explained largely in the light of Pleistocene climatic oscillations and the way these influenced the distribution of vegetation types, leading to range expansions and/or isolation in refugia. In contrast, comparatively fewer studies have addressed the continent’s environmental heterogeneity and the role played by its geomorphological barriers. In this study, we performed a range-wide analysis of complete mitogenomes of sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) to explore how these different factors may have contributed as drivers of evolution in southcentral Africa. Our results supported two sympatric and deeply divergent mitochondrial lineages in west Tanzanian sables, which can be explained as the result of introgressive hybridization of a mitochondrial ghost lineage from an archaic, as-yet-undefined, congener. Phylogeographical subdivisions into three main lineages suggest that sable diversification may not have been driven solely by climatic events affecting populations differently across a continental scale. Often in interplay with climate, geomorphological features have also clearly shaped the species’ patterns of vicariance, where the East Africa Rift System and the Eastern Arc Mountains acted as geological barriers. Subsequent splits among southern populations may be linked to rearrangements in the Zambezi system, possibly framing the most recent time when the river attained its current drainage profile. This work underlines how the use of comprehensive mitogenomic data sets on a model species with a wide geographical distribution can contribute to a much-enhanced understanding of environmental, geomorphological and evolutionary patterns in Africa throughout the Quaternary.

AB - The evolutionary history of African ungulates has been explained largely in the light of Pleistocene climatic oscillations and the way these influenced the distribution of vegetation types, leading to range expansions and/or isolation in refugia. In contrast, comparatively fewer studies have addressed the continent’s environmental heterogeneity and the role played by its geomorphological barriers. In this study, we performed a range-wide analysis of complete mitogenomes of sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) to explore how these different factors may have contributed as drivers of evolution in southcentral Africa. Our results supported two sympatric and deeply divergent mitochondrial lineages in west Tanzanian sables, which can be explained as the result of introgressive hybridization of a mitochondrial ghost lineage from an archaic, as-yet-undefined, congener. Phylogeographical subdivisions into three main lineages suggest that sable diversification may not have been driven solely by climatic events affecting populations differently across a continental scale. Often in interplay with climate, geomorphological features have also clearly shaped the species’ patterns of vicariance, where the East Africa Rift System and the Eastern Arc Mountains acted as geological barriers. Subsequent splits among southern populations may be linked to rearrangements in the Zambezi system, possibly framing the most recent time when the river attained its current drainage profile. This work underlines how the use of comprehensive mitogenomic data sets on a model species with a wide geographical distribution can contribute to a much-enhanced understanding of environmental, geomorphological and evolutionary patterns in Africa throughout the Quaternary.

KW - Africa

KW - ghost mtDNA capture

KW - Hippotragus niger

KW - mitogenome

KW - phylogeography

KW - Pleistocene

U2 - 10.1111/mec.16427

DO - 10.1111/mec.16427

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35305042

AN - SCOPUS:85127435639

VL - 31

SP - 2968

EP - 2984

JO - Molecular Ecology

JF - Molecular Ecology

SN - 0962-1083

IS - 10

ER -