Voles of the genus Microtus are important research organisms, yet genomic resources in the genus are lacking. Providing such resources would benefit future studies of immunology, phylogeography, cryptic diversity, and more. We sequenced and assembled nuclear genomes from two subspecies of water vole (Microtus richardsoni) and from the montane vole (Microtus montanus).
The North American water vole (M. richardsoni) is adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle, relying on alpine and sub-alpine streams for creating burrows and escaping predators. The present study provides two nuclear and one mitochondrial genome assembly for M. richardsoni. The nuclear genomes were sequenced with Illumina and 10X Chromium plus Illumina sequencing. Sequencing of M. r. arvicoloides produced over 800 million reads and 47x coverage. The final genome assembly consisted of ~32,000 scaffolds with an N50 of 2.3 Mb, 1.3% missing data (N's), and a BUSCO score of 85.8%. Sequencing of M. r. macropus produced over 600 million reads and 35x coverage. The final genome assembly consisted of ~1,600,000 scaffolds with an N50 of 16Kb, 0.06% missing data, and a BUSCO score of 54.5%. In addition to the nuclear assemblies, a mitochondrial genome assembly was also performed for M. r. arvicoloides.

Voles of the genus Microtus are important research organisms, yet genomic resources in the genus are lacking. Providing such resources would benefit future studies of immunology, phylogeography, cryptic diversity, and more. We sequenced and assembled nuclear genomes from two subspecies of water vole (Microtus richardsoni) and from the montane vole (Microtus montanus).
The montane vole is native to the western United States and Canada. Fifteen subspecies of Microtus montanus can be found across a range of elevations and habitats, including grasslands, alpine meadows, near stream beds, and close to agricultural land.
Microtus montanus sequencing produced over 100M reads and 13x coverage. Preliminary genome assembly resulted in ~13K scaffolds with an N50 of ~3.1Mb, 8.8% Ns, and a BUSCO score of 82.6%. In addition to the nuclear assembly, mitochondrial genome assembly was also performed.

Most approaches to species delimitation to-date have considered divergence-only models. While these models are appropriate for allopatric speciation, their failure to incorporate many of the population-level processes that drive speciation, such as gene flow (e.g. in sympatric speciation), places an unnecessary limit on our collective understanding of the processes that produce biodiversity. To consider these processes while inferring species boundaries, we introduce the R-package delimitR and apply it to identify species boundaries in the reticulate taildropper slug (Prophysaon andersoni). Results suggest that secondary contact is an important mechanism driving speciation in this system. By considering process, we both avoid erroneous inferences that can be made when population-level processes such as secondary contact drive speciation but only divergence is considered, and gain insight into the process of speciation in terrestrial slugs. Further, we apply delimitR to three published empirical datasets and find results corroborating previous findings. Finally, we evaluate the performance of delimitR using simulation studies, and find that error rates are near zero when comparing models that include lineage divergence and gene flow for three populations with a modest number of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs; 1,500) and moderate divergence times (< 100000 generations). When we apply delimitR to a complex model set (i.e. including divergence, gene flow, and population size changes), error rates are moderate (~0.15; 10000 SNPs), and, when present, misclassifications occur between highly similar models.

Adaptive radiations are defined as rapid diversification with phenotypic innovation led by colonization to new environments. Notably, adaptive radiations can occur in parallel when habitats with similar selective pressures are accessible promoting convergent adaptions. While convergent evolution appears to be a common process, it is unclear what are the main drivers leading the reappearance of morphologies or ecological roles. We explore this question in Myotis bats, the only Chiropteran genus with a worldwide distribution. Three foraging strategies ­–gleaning, trawling, and aerial netting– repeatedly evolved in several regions of the world, each linked to characteristic morphologies recognized as ecomorphs. Phylogenomic, morphometric, and comparative approaches were adopted to investigate convergence of such foraging strategies and skull morphology as well as factors that explain diversification rates. Genomic and morphometric data were analyzed from ~80% extant taxa. Results confirm that the ecomorphs evolved multiple times, with trawling evolving more often and foliage gleaning most recently. Skull morphology does not reflect common ancestry, evolves convergently with foraging strategy. While diversification rates have been roughly constant across the genus, speciation rates are area-dependent in taxa with temperate distributions. Results suggest that in this species-rich group of bats, first, stochastic processes have led divergence into multiple lineages. Then, natural selection in similar niches has promoted repeated adaptation of phenotypes and foraging strategies. Myotis bats are thus a remarkable case of ecomorphological convergence and an emerging model system for investigating the genomic basis of parallel adaptive radiation.

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