Chromosomal speciation in the genomics era: disentangling phylogenetic evolution of rock-wallabies

The association of chromosome rearrangements with speciation is well established, and there is a long history of theory and evidence relating to “chromosomal speciation”. Genomic sequencing has the potential to provide new insights into how reorganization of genome structure promotes divergence, and in model systems has demonstrated reduced gene flow in rearranged segments. However, there are limits to what we can understand from a small number of model systems, which each only tell us about one episode of chromosomal speciation. Progressing from patterns of association between chromosome (and genic) change, to understanding processes of speciation requires both comparative studies across diverse systems and integration of genome-scale sequence comparisons with other lines of evidence. Here we showcase a promising example of chromosomal speciation in a non-model organism, the endemic Australian marsupial genus Petrogale. We present initial phylogenetic results from exon-capture that res...