Abstract
Simple SummaryRange expansions of invasive species continue to increase due to the direct or indirect influences of humans on global habitats. Understanding how these introductions and invasions increase the potential for interaction and hybridization between colonists and closely related native species is therefore increasingly important. We examine the evolutionary histories and signatures of hybridization among introduced feral Rock Pigeon and Eurasian Collared-Dove and native White-winged and Mourning doves in southwestern North America. Analyzing thousands of genomic markers, we find little evidence that hybridization has been extensive in their evolutionary histories or today. Despite this, evidence from multiple population genetics analyses supports the presence of six putative contemporary late-stage hybrids among the 182 sampled individuals. These putative hybrids all involve the most populous species, the Mourning Dove. We discuss the importance of using multiple marker types when attempting to infer complex evolutionary histories and propose important considerations when analyzing populations that were recently established or of domestic origins.Introductions and invasions provide opportunities for interaction and hybridization between colonists and closely related native species. We investigate this phenomenon using the mitochondrial DNA COI and 81,416 base-pairs of overlapping nuclear variation to examine the evolutionary histories and signatures of hybridization among introduced feral Rock Pigeon and Eurasian Collared-Dove and native White-winged and Mourning doves in southwestern North America. First, we report all four species to be highly divergent across loci (overall pair-wise species ΦST range = 0.17–0.70) and provide little evidence for gene flow at evolutionary timescales. Despite this, evidence from multiple population genetics analyses supports the presence of six putative contemporary late-stage hybrids among the 182 sampled individuals. These putative hybrids contain various ancestry combinations, but all involve the most populous species, the Mourning Dove. Next, we use a novel method to reconstruct demographic changes through time using partial genome sequence data. We identify recent, species-specific fluctuations in population size that are likely associated with changing environments since the Miocene and suggest that these fluctuations have influenced the genetic diversity of each dove species in ways that may impact their future persistence. Finally, we discuss the importance of using multiple marker types when attempting to infer complex evolutionary histories and propose important considerations when analyzing populations that were recently established or of domestic origins.
Highlights
IntroductionEurasian Collared-Dove was introduced more recently in the 1970’s [15,16], but has followed a similar trajectory and is present across much of southern and western North America [17]
For ddRAD sequencing, a total of 377 million raw HiSeq Illumina reads were recovered across all samples
We recovered an average per sample median sequencing depth of 119
Summary
Eurasian Collared-Dove was introduced more recently in the 1970’s [15,16], but has followed a similar trajectory and is present across much of southern and western North America [17] They are native to North America, White-winged Doves have expanded through intentional releases by people [18,19], and due to increased urban land cover that has spurred a significant northward expansion out of Central Mexico over the last 60 years [13,20,21,22]. The potential for interspecific matings in the areas of overlap provides an opportunity for investigating the effects of contemporary gene flow from established non-native and fera3lof 20 populations on the genomes of native species
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