Impacts of landscape and past climate on patterns of hybridization and genetic diversity in Plestiodon tetragrammus and P. multivirgatus

Abstract

Past hybridization plays an important role in evolution of taxa. We use multiple phylogenetic approaches including single gene sequencing and high-through put sequencing to address the effects of past hybridization in the four-lined skinks, P. tetragrammus, and the variable skink, P. multivirgatus. We show that mitochondrial genes have been introgressed between P. multivirgatus and P. t. brevilineatus. We also show that this introgression has lead to decreased genetic diversity in these lineages. We use species distribution models to show that P. multivirgatus and P. t. brevilineatus shared a large portion of their ranges in the last glacial maximum allowing for hybridization and widespread mitochondrial introgression.