Sailing through the Late Pleistocene: unusual historical demography of an East Asian endemic, the Chinese Hwamei (Leucodioptron canorum canorum), during the last glacial period

Pleistocene climate fluctuations shaped the patterns of genetic diversity observed in extant species. In contrast to Europe and North America where the effects of recent glacial cycles on genetic diversity have been well studied, the genetic legacy of the Late Pleistocene for East Asia, a region of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular ecology 2009-02, Vol.18 (4), p.622-633
Main Authors: LI, SHOU-HSIEN, YEUNG, CAROL K-L., FEINSTEIN, JULIE, HAN, LIANXIAN, LE, MANH HUNG, WANG, CHI-XAN, DING, PING
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Birds
Climate
Climate change
DNA, Mitochondrial - genetics
Ecosystem
Evolution, Molecular
Far East
Gene Flow
Genetics, Population
Genome, Mitochondrial
Genomics
Haplotypes
historical demography
Likelihood Functions
Molecular biology
Molecular Sequence Data
multiple refugia
Paleoecology
Passeriformes - genetics
Phylogeny
Polymorphism, Genetic
Population Dynamics
population expansion
Sequence Analysis, DNA
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Summary:Pleistocene climate fluctuations shaped the patterns of genetic diversity observed in extant species. In contrast to Europe and North America where the effects of recent glacial cycles on genetic diversity have been well studied, the genetic legacy of the Late Pleistocene for East Asia, a region of great topographical complexity and presumably milder historical climate, remains poorly understood. We analysed 3.86 kb of the mitochondrial genome of 186 Chinese Hwamei birds, Leucodioptron canorum canorum, and found that contrary to the conventional expectation of population decline during cold periods (stadials), the demographic history of this species shows continuous population growth since the penultimate glacial period (about 170 000 years ago). Refugia were identified in the south, coastal regions, and northern inland areas, implying that topographic complexity played a substantial role in providing suitable habitats for the Chinese Hwamei during cold periods. Intermittent gene flow between these refugia during the warmer periods (interstadials) might have resulted in a large effective population of this bird through the last glacial period.
ISSN:0962-1083
1365-294X
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2008.04028.x