Hybridization may aid evolutionary rescue of an endangered East African passerine

Daniel Vedder*, Luc Lens, Claudia A. Martin, Petri Pellikka, Hari Adhikari, Janne Heiskanen, Jan O. Engler, Juliano Sarmento Cabral

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

Introgressive hybridization is a process that enables gene flow across species barriers through the backcrossing of hybrids into a parent population. This may make genetic material, potentially including relevant environmental adaptations, rapidly available in a gene pool. Consequently, it has been postulated to be an important mechanism for enabling evolutionary rescue, that is the recovery of threatened populations through rapid evolutionary adaptation to novel environments. However, predicting the likelihood of such evolutionary rescue for individual species remains challenging. Here, we use the example of Zosterops silvanus, an endangered East African highland bird species suffering from severe habitat loss and fragmentation, to investigate whether hybridization with its congener Zosterops flavilateralis might enable evolutionary rescue of its Taita Hills population. To do so, we employ an empirically parameterized individual-based model to simulate the species' behaviour, physiology and genetics. We test the population's response to different assumptions of mating behaviour and multiple scenarios of habitat change. We show that as long as hybridization does take place, evolutionary rescue of Z. silvanus is likely. Intermediate hybridization rates enable the greatest long-term population growth, due to trade-offs between adaptive and maladaptive introgressed alleles. Habitat change did not have a strong effect on population growth rates, as Z. silvanus is a strong disperser and landscape configuration is therefore not the limiting factor for hybridization. Our results show that targeted gene flow may be a promising avenue to help accelerate the adaptation of endangered species to novel environments, and demonstrate how to combine empirical research and mechanistic modelling to deliver species-specific predictions for conservation planning.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1177-1188
Number of pages12
JournalEvolutionary Applications
Volume15
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Jul 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
DV gratefully acknowledges the support of iDiv funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG–FZT 118, 202548816). LL, JOE, and CAM were funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO; 1527918 N & G042318N). JOE received additional funds by an FWO Postdoctoral Fellowship (12G4317N). LL, JOE and CAM would like to thank Julia J. Day and Jan‐Christian Habel for the provision of DNA samples for and , and and (Mt. Kasigau), respectively. We are grateful to Alex Suh for providing genomic sequencing through the SciLifeLab (Sweden) and to Yannick Gansemans for bioinformatic generation of the initial genome alignments. PP, JH, and AH would like to acknowledge the Building Bio‐Carbon and Rural Development in West Africa (Biodev) program funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, and the SMARTLAND project funded by the Academy of Finland (Decision number 318645) for developing the land cover data. A research permit from NACOSTI (P/18/ 97336/26355) is acknowledged. Furthermore, many thanks to the Taita Research Station of the University of Helsinki in Kenya and its great staff for logistical support during the field inventory campaign. Z. flavilateralis Z. kulalensis Z. mbuluensis Z. silvanus

Funding Information:
DV gratefully acknowledges the support of iDiv funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG–FZT 118, 202548816). LL, JOE, and CAM were funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO; 1527918 N & G042318N). JOE received additional funds by an FWO Postdoctoral Fellowship (12G4317N). LL, JOE and CAM would like to thank Julia J. Day and Jan-Christian Habel for the provision of DNA samples for Z. flavilateralis and Z. kulalensis, and Z. mbuluensis and Z. silvanus (Mt. Kasigau), respectively. We are grateful to Alex Suh for providing genomic sequencing through the SciLifeLab (Sweden) and to Yannick Gansemans for bioinformatic generation of the initial genome alignments. PP, JH, and AH would like to acknowledge the Building Bio-Carbon and Rural Development in West Africa (Biodev) program funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, and the SMARTLAND project funded by the Academy of Finland (Decision number 318645) for developing the land cover data. A research permit from NACOSTI (P/18/ 97336/26355) is acknowledged. Furthermore, many thanks to the Taita Research Station of the University of Helsinki in Kenya and its great staff for logistical support during the field inventory campaign.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Evolutionary Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Keywords

  • evolutionary rescue
  • habitat change
  • individual-based model
  • introgressive hybridization
  • Taita Hills
  • Zosterops silvanus

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Genetics
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

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