Dissecting the effects of natural selection and mutation on genetic diversity in three recently diverged cryptic butterfly species. Leptidea selection project

The relative role of natural selection and random genetic drift in evolution has been a major topic of debate in evolutionary biology. Most knowledge spring from a small group of organisms and originate from before it was possible to generate genome-wide data on genetic variation. Hence, it is necessary to extend to a larger number of taxonomic groups, descriptive and hypothesis-based research aiming at understanding the proximate and ultimate mechanisms underlying both levels of genetic polymorphisms and the efficiency of natural selection. In this study, we used data from 60 whole-genome re-sequenced individuals of three cryptic butterfly species (Leptidea sp.), together with novel gene annotation information and population recombination data. We characterized the overall prevalence of natural selection, investigated the effects of linked selection on regional variation in nucleotide diversity and identified targets of positive selection in each respective species and in ecologically distinct populations.