Cargando…

Migration direction in a songbird explained by two loci

Migratory routes and remote wintering quarters in birds are often species and even population specific. It has been known for decades that songbirds mainly migrate solitarily, and that the migration direction is genetically controlled. Yet, the underlying genetic mechanisms remain unknown. To invest...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sokolovskis, Kristaps, Lundberg, Max, Åkesson, Susanne, Willemoes, Mikkel, Zhao, Tianhao, Caballero-Lopez, Violeta, Bensch, Staffan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9834303/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36631459
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-35788-7
Descripción
Sumario:Migratory routes and remote wintering quarters in birds are often species and even population specific. It has been known for decades that songbirds mainly migrate solitarily, and that the migration direction is genetically controlled. Yet, the underlying genetic mechanisms remain unknown. To investigate the genetic basis of migration direction, we track genotyped willow warblers Phylloscopus trochilus from a migratory divide in Sweden, where South-West migrating, and South-East migrating subspecies form a hybrid swarm. We find evidence that migration direction follows a dominant inheritance pattern with epistatic interaction between two loci explaining 74% of variation. Consequently, most hybrids migrate similarly to one of the parental subspecies, and therefore do not suffer from the cost of following an inferior, intermediate route. This has significant implications for understanding the selection processes that maintain narrow migratory divides.