The effectiveness of pseudomagic traits in promoting divergence and enhancing local adaptation.

Abstract

"Magic traits," in which the same trait is both under divergent ecological selection and forms the basis of assortative mating, have been sought after due to their supposed unique ability to promote divergence with gene flow. Here, we ask how unique magic traits are, by exploring whether a tightly linked complex of a locus under divergent selection and a locus that acts as a mating cue can mimic a magic trait in its divergence. We find that these "pseudomagic traits" can be very effective in promoting divergence; with tight linkage they are essentially as effective as a magic trait and with loose linkage, and even no linkage, divergence can still be enhanced. Distinguishing between magic and pseudomagic traits in empirical cases may thus not be important when inferring their role in divergence. The ability of divergence in the mating trait to drive divergence in the ecological trait by lowering the effective migration rate, which occurs somewhat even without linkage, is particularly striking; magic traits are typically considered to have the other direction of causality. Our results thus suggest that divergence in a mating trait can at least modestly increase local adaption by allowing more ecological divergence, particularly with tighter linkage.