Evolutionary history of endemic Sulawesi squirrels constructed from UCEs and mitogenomes sequenced from museum specimens

Background: The Indonesian island of Sulawesi has a complex geological history. It is composed of several landmasses that have arrived at a near modern configuration only in the past few million years. It is the largest island in the biodiversity hotspot of Wallacea—an area demarcated by the biogeographic breaks between Wallace’s and Lydekker’s lines. The mammal fauna of Sulawesi is transitional between Asian and Australian faunas. Sulawesi’s three genera of squirrels, all endemic (subfamily Nannosciurinae: Hyosciurus, Rubrisciurus and Prosciurillus), are of Asian origin and have evolved a variety of phenotypes that allow a range of ecological niche specializations. Here we present a molecular phylogeny of this radiation using data from museum specimens. High throughput sequencing technology was used to generate whole mitochondrial genomes and a panel of nuclear ultraconserved elements providing a large genome-wide dataset for inferring phylogenetic relationships. Results: Our analysis...研究背景：印度尼西亚苏拉威西岛拥有复杂的地质演化历史，其由多个陆块拼接而成，这些陆块直至数百万年前才形成接近现代的地理格局。该岛是华莱士区（Wallacea）生物多样性热点区域中面积最大的岛屿——该区域以华莱士线与莱德克线之间的生物地理分界为边界。苏拉威西岛的哺乳动物区系兼具亚洲与澳大利亚动物区系的过渡特征。岛上的3个松鼠属均为特有属，隶属于倭松鼠亚科（Nannosciurinae），分别为山松鼠属（Hyosciurus）、红松鼠属（Rubrisciurus）与前松鼠属（Prosciurillus），它们起源于亚洲，并演化出多种表型以占据不同的生态位。本研究基于馆藏标本的测序数据，构建了这一辐射演化类群的分子系统发育树。研究采用高通量测序（High-throughput sequencing）技术，获取了完整线粒体基因组（whole mitochondrial genomes）与一组核超保守元件（nuclear ultraconserved elements）数据，由此生成覆盖全基因组的大型数据集，用于推断类群间的系统发育关系。 研究结果：本研究的分析……