Full-Likelihood Genomic Analysis Clarifies a Complex History of Species Divergence & Introgression
1 June 2022
By accounting for phasing and using full-likelihood methods, introgression histories and population parameters can be estimated reliably from whole-genome sequence data. We employ the multispecies coalescent (MSC) model with and without gene flow to infer the species phylogeny and cross-species introgression events using genomic data from six members of the erato-sara clade of Heliconius butterflies.
We confirm ancestral gene flow between the sara clade and an ancestral population of Heliconius telesiphe, a likely hybrid speciation origin for Heliconius hecalesia, and gene flow between the sister species Heliconius erato and Heliconius himera.
This study illustrates how a full-likelihood approach based on the MSC makes it possible to extract rich historical information of species divergence and gene flow from genomic data.
https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syac009