From a local barcoding initiative to a continental-scale, multi-institutional assessment of avian diversification in the Neotropics

LAVINIA OBLANCA PABLO DAMIÁN; ESCALANTE PATRICIA; GARCÍA NATALIA C.; BARREIRA ANA S.; TRUJILLO-ARIAS NATALIA; TUBARO PABLO LUIS; NAOKI KAZUYA; MIYAKI CRISTINA Y.; SANTOS FABRICIO R.; LIJTMAER DARÍO A.

Guelph

Congreso; 6th International Barcode of Life Conference; 2015

University of Guelph

Background: In 2005, the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales joined the All Birds Barcoding Initiative aiming to obtain the DNA barcodes of the birds of Argentina. As the project expanded its frontiers to Bolivia, in collaboration with local institutions, several cases of deep intraspecific divergence were revealed. Among them, that of the Red-crowned Ant Tanager (Habia rubica) stood out because of the strikingly high (around 7%) COI distance found between the allopatric populations of the Atlantic Forest in Argentina and the Yungas-Amazonia complex in Bolivia. Independently, a similar pattern of east-west divergence was found in Mexico and Middle America as part of the project to barcode the birds of Mexico and Guatemala. All this eventually led to the joint effort of Argentinian, Bolivian, Brazilian, and Mexican researchers to unveil the evolutionary history of H. rubica at a continental scale.Results: We explored the phylogeographic patterns of intraspecific diversity within H. rubica throughout its widespread but disjunct distribution from Mexico to Argentina. We performed phylogenetic, phylogeographic and genetic population analyses based on COI and other mitochondrial and nuclear genes, complemented with the assessment of coloration and behavioural differentiation. The evolutionary history of H. rubica through the last 5 million years seems to have been shaped by the uplift of the Northern Andes, the formation of the Isthmus of Panama, the establishment of the open vegetation corridor, and Quaternary climatic fluctuations. This resulted in levels of genetic, morphological and behavioural divergence that justify considering at least three different species within this diversified lineage.Significance: Our study clearly illustrates how local screening of diversity through DNA barcodes can grow into large-scale, multi-institutional collaborative projects able to provide meaningful insights into the evolutionary history of certain regions and taxa of interest.