Introgression catalyzing plumage evolution and speciation in an Asian songbird complex.

IF 7.7 1区生物学 Q1 CELL BIOLOGY

Cell reports Pub Date : 2026-10-08 DOI:10.1016/j.celrep.2026.118108

Chuan Jiang, Wenwen Zhu, Per Alström, Yanchun Xu, Yang Zhou, Jiazheng Jin, Nassoro Mohamed, Yue Ma, Suying Bai, Yang Liu, Bo Li

{"title":"Introgression catalyzing plumage evolution and speciation in an Asian songbird complex.","authors":"Chuan Jiang, Wenwen Zhu, Per Alström, Yanchun Xu, Yang Zhou, Jiazheng Jin, Nassoro Mohamed, Yue Ma, Suying Bai, Yang Liu, Bo Li","doi":"10.1016/j.celrep.2026.118108","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hybridization and introgression can promote speciation and phenotypic diversity. We investigated genomic divergence between two closely related Asian songbirds, Naumann's Thrush (Turdus naumanni, Nau) and Dusky Thrush (T. eunomus, Eun), and their evolutionary relationship with the geographically adjacent Red-throated Thrush (T. ruficollis, Ruf). Utilizing a de novo chromosome-level genome and whole-genome resequencing data from 66 individuals, we characterized differentiation and introgression among the three species. Genomic divergence between Nau and Eun was restricted to a few genomic islands that overlap with regions introgressed into Nau from Ruf. Notably, these regions harbor three melanin-related genes under strong selection in Nau (ASIP, OCA2, and HERC2), which may account for the plumage similarity between Nau and Ruf. These findings suggest that the morphological and genetic divergence between Nau and Eun may have been driven by adaptive introgression of melanin-related genes from Ruf into Nau. This study reveals how introgression can generate rapid genomic and phenotypic divergence, indicating a potentially ubiquitous yet overlooked speciation mechanism.</p>","PeriodicalId":9798,"journal":{"name":"Cell reports","volume":"45 10","pages":"118108"},"PeriodicalIF":7.7000,"publicationDate":"2026-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Cell reports","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2026.118108","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CELL BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Hybridization and introgression can promote speciation and phenotypic diversity. We investigated genomic divergence between two closely related Asian songbirds, Naumann's Thrush (Turdus naumanni, Nau) and Dusky Thrush (T. eunomus, Eun), and their evolutionary relationship with the geographically adjacent Red-throated Thrush (T. ruficollis, Ruf). Utilizing a de novo chromosome-level genome and whole-genome resequencing data from 66 individuals, we characterized differentiation and introgression among the three species. Genomic divergence between Nau and Eun was restricted to a few genomic islands that overlap with regions introgressed into Nau from Ruf. Notably, these regions harbor three melanin-related genes under strong selection in Nau (ASIP, OCA2, and HERC2), which may account for the plumage similarity between Nau and Ruf. These findings suggest that the morphological and genetic divergence between Nau and Eun may have been driven by adaptive introgression of melanin-related genes from Ruf into Nau. This study reveals how introgression can generate rapid genomic and phenotypic divergence, indicating a potentially ubiquitous yet overlooked speciation mechanism.

查看原文本刊更多论文

渗透催化亚洲鸣禽群羽毛进化和物种形成。

杂交和渐渗可以促进物种形成和表型多样性。研究了两种亲缘关系较近的亚洲鸣禽——瑙曼画眉（Turdus naumanni, Nau）和褐眉（T. eunomus, Eun）的基因组差异，以及它们与地理上相邻的红喉画眉（T. ruficollis, Ruf）的进化关系。利用来自66个个体的从头染色体水平基因组和全基因组重测序数据，我们表征了三个物种之间的分化和渐渗。Nau和Eun之间的基因组差异仅限于与从Ruf渗入到Nau的区域重叠的几个基因组岛。值得注意的是，这些区域在Nau的强选择下包含三个黑色素相关基因（ASIP， OCA2和HERC2），这可能解释了Nau和Ruf之间羽毛的相似性。这些发现表明，Nau和Eun之间的形态和遗传差异可能是由黑色素相关基因从Ruf向Nau的适应性渗入所驱动的。这项研究揭示了基因渗入如何产生快速的基因组和表型分化，表明了一种可能普遍存在但被忽视的物种形成机制。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Cell reports CELL BIOLOGY-

CiteScore

13.80

自引率

1.10%

发文量

1305

审稿时长

77 days

期刊介绍： Cell Reports publishes high-quality research across the life sciences and focuses on new biological insight as its primary criterion for publication. The journal offers three primary article types: Reports, which are shorter single-point articles, research articles, which are longer and provide deeper mechanistic insights, and resources, which highlight significant technical advances or major informational datasets that contribute to biological advances. Reviews covering recent literature in emerging and active fields are also accepted. The Cell Reports Portfolio includes gold open-access journals that cover life, medical, and physical sciences, and its mission is to make cutting-edge research and methodologies available to a wide readership. The journal's professional in-house editors work closely with authors, reviewers, and the scientific advisory board, which consists of current and future leaders in their respective fields. The advisory board guides the scope, content, and quality of the journal, but editorial decisions are independently made by the in-house scientific editors of Cell Reports.