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...染色体重排与物种形成之间的关联已得到广泛证实，围绕“染色体物种形成（chromosomal speciation）”的理论与实证研究亦拥有悠久历史。基因组测序有望为解析基因组结构重排如何推动物种分化提供新视角，且在模式生物系统中已证实染色体重排区段存在基因流降低的现象。然而，仅依托少量模式生物系统开展研究存在局限性——每个模式系统仅能揭示单一染色体物种形成事件的相关信息。若要从染色体（及基因）变异的关联模式研究深入推进至物种形成过程的解析，既需要开展跨多样生物系统的比较研究，也需要将全基因组序列比对与其他多类证据进行整合分析。本研究展示了一个极具潜力的非模式生物染色体物种形成案例：澳大利亚特有有袋类岩袋鼠属（Petrogale）。我们呈现了基于外显子捕获技术获得的初步系统发育分析结果，其研究内容未完……