Australian Museum Research Institute, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia.
South Australian Museum, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2023 Dec;189:107934. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107934. Epub 2023 Sep 26.
Paleo-climatic fluctuations have driven episodic changes in species distributions, providing opportunities for populations to diverge in isolation and hybridise following secondary contact. Studies of phylogeographic diversity and patterns of gene flow across hybrid zones can provide insight into contemporary species boundaries and help to inform taxonomic and conservation inferences. Here we explore geographic diversity within the acoustically divergent yet morphologically conserved south-eastern Australian smooth frog complex and assess gene flow across a narrow hybrid zone using mitochondrial nucleotide sequences and nuclear genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms. Our analyses reveal the presence of an evolutionarily distinct taxon restricted to the Otway Plains and Ranges, Victoria, which forms a narrow (9-30 km wide), spatiotemporally stable (>50 years) hybrid zone with Geocrinia laevis, which we describe herein as a new species.
古气候波动导致了物种分布的偶发性变化，为种群提供了在隔离和二次接触后发生分化和杂交的机会。对地理分化多样性和杂种带中基因流模式的研究可以深入了解当代物种边界，并有助于为分类学和保护学提供信息。在这里，我们探索了澳大利亚东南部形态上保守但声学上有差异的光滑蛙复合体的地理多样性，并使用线粒体核苷酸序列和核基因组全基因组单核苷酸多态性评估了狭窄杂种带中的基因流。我们的分析揭示了一个在进化上有区别的分类群，仅限于维多利亚州奥特韦平原和山脉，它与我们在此描述为一个新物种的 Geocrinia laevis 形成了一个狭窄（9-30 公里宽）、时空稳定（>50 年）的杂种带。
