Diversification and historical demography of Rhampholeon spectrum in West-Central Africa
dc.contributor.author | Nkonmeneck, Walter Paulin Tapondjou | |
dc.contributor.author | Allen, Kaitlin E. | |
dc.contributor.author | Hime, Paul M. | |
dc.contributor.author | Knipp, Kristen N. | |
dc.contributor.author | Kameni, Marina M. | |
dc.contributor.author | Tchassem, Arnaud M. | |
dc.contributor.author | Gonwouo, LeGrand N. | |
dc.contributor.author | Brown, Rafe M. | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2023-02-06T18:57:00Z | |
dc.date.available | 2023-02-06T18:57:00Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2022-12-16 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Tapondjou Nkonmeneck WP, Allen KE, Hime PM, Knipp KN, Kameni MM, Tchassem AM, et al. (2022) Diversification and historical demography of Rhampholeon spectrum in West-Central Africa. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0277107. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277107 | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1808/33743 | |
dc.description.abstract | Pygmy Chameleons of the genus Rhampholeon represent a moderately diverse, geographically circumscribed radiation, with most species (18 out of 19 extant taxa) limited to East Africa. The one exception is Rhampholeon spectrum, a species restricted to West-Central African rainforests. We set out to characterize the geographic basis of genetic variation in this disjunctly distributed Rhampholeon species using a combination of multilocus Sanger data and genomic sequences to explore population structure and range-wide phylogeographic patterns. We also employed demographic analyses and niche modeling to distinguish between alternate explanations to contextualize the impact of past geological and climatic events on the present-day distribution of intraspecific genetic variation. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that R. spectrum is a complex of five geographically delimited populations grouped into two major clades (montane vs. lowland). We found pronounced population structure suggesting that divergence and, potentially, speciation began between the late Miocene and the Pleistocene. Sea level changes during the Pleistocene climatic oscillations resulted in allopatric divergence associated with dispersal over an ocean channel barrier and colonization of Bioko Island. Demographic inferences and range stability mapping each support diversification models with secondary contact due to population contraction in lowland and montane refugia during the interglacial period. Allopatric divergence, congruent with isolation caused by geologic uplift of the East African rift system, the “descent into the Icehouse,” and aridification of sub-Saharan Africa during the Eocene-Oligocene are identified as the key events explaining the population divergence between R. spectrum and its closely related sister clade from the Eastern Arc Mountains. Our results unveil cryptic genetic diversity in R. spectrum, suggesting the possibility of a species complex distributed across the Lower Guinean Forest and the Island of Bioko. We highlight the major element of species diversification that modelled today’s diversity and distributions in most West-Central African vertebrates. | en_US |
dc.publisher | Public Library of Science | en_US |
dc.rights | © 2022 Tapondjou Nkonmeneck et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | en_US |
dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en_US |
dc.subject | Phylogeography | en_US |
dc.subject | Phylogenetic analysis | en_US |
dc.subject | Paleogenetics | en_US |
dc.subject | Cameroon | en_US |
dc.subject | Gene flow | en_US |
dc.subject | Forests | en_US |
dc.subject | Islands | en_US |
dc.subject | Speciation | en_US |
dc.title | Diversification and historical demography of Rhampholeon spectrum in West-Central Africa | en_US |
dc.type | Article | en_US |
kusw.kuauthor | Nkonmeneck, Walter Paulin Tapondjou | |
kusw.kuauthor | Allen, Kaitlin E. | |
kusw.kuauthor | Hime, Paul M. | |
kusw.kuauthor | Knipp, Kristen N. | |
kusw.kuauthor | Brown, Rafe M. | |
kusw.kudepartment | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | en_US |
kusw.kudepartment | Biodiversity Institute | en_US |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1371/journal.pone.0277107 | en_US |
dc.identifier.orcid | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7676-1824 | en_US |
kusw.oaversion | Scholarly/refereed, publisher version | en_US |
kusw.oapolicy | This item meets KU Open Access policy criteria. | en_US |
dc.identifier.pmid | PMC9757597 | en_US |
dc.rights.accessrights | openAccess | en_US |
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as: © 2022 Tapondjou Nkonmeneck et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.