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Reinventing the wheel? Reassessing the roles of gene flow, sorting and convergence in repeated evolution
Author(s) -
Waters Jonathan M.,
McCulloch Graham A.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1111/mec.16018
Subject(s) - convergent evolution , biology , evolutionary biology , sorting , coalescent theory , convergence (economics) , phylogenetic tree , gene flow , variation (astronomy) , introgression , parallel evolution , taxon , phylogenetics , genetics , gene , genetic variation , ecology , physics , computer science , astrophysics , economics , programming language , economic growth
Abstract Biologists have long been intrigued by apparently predictable and repetitive evolutionary trajectories inferred across a variety of lineages and systems. In recent years, high‐throughput sequencing analyses have started to transform our understanding of such repetitive shifts. While researchers have traditionally categorized such shifts as either “convergent” or “parallel,” based on relatedness of the lineages involved, emerging genomic insights provide an opportunity to better describe the actual evolutionary mechanisms at play. A synthesis of recent genomic analyses confirms that convergence is the predominant driver of repetitive evolution among species, whereas repeated sorting of standing variation is the major driver of repeated shifts within species. However, emerging data reveal numerous notable exceptions to these expectations, with recent examples of de novo mutations underpinning convergent shifts among even very closely related lineages, while repetitive sorting processes have occurred among even deeply divergent taxa, sometimes via introgression. A number of very recent analyses have found evidence for both processes occurring on different scales within taxa. We suggest that the relative importance of convergent versus sorting processes depends on the interplay between gene flow among populations, and phylogenetic relatedness of the lineages involved.