DNA barcoding of Scandinavian birds reveals divergent lineages in trans-Atlantic species

By A. Johnsen, E. Rindal, P. Ericson, D. Zuccon, K. Kerr, Marc Stoeckle, J. Lifjeld. Journal of Ornithology, 2010

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Birds are a taxonomically well-described group of animals, yet DNA barcoding, i.e., the molecular characterization of species using a standardized genetic marker, has revealed unexpected patterns of genetic divergences among North American birds. We performed a comprehensive COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) barcode survey of 296 species of Scandinavian birds, and compared genetic divergences among 78 trans-Atlantic species whose breeding ranges include both Scandinavia and North America. Ninety-four percent of the Scandinavian species showed unique barcode clusters; the remaining 6% had overlapping barcodes with one or more congeneric species, which may reflect incomplete lineage sorting or a single gene pool. Four species showed large intra-specific divergences within Scandinavia, despite no apparent morphological differentiation or indications of reproductive isolation. These cases may reflect admixture of previously isolated lineages, and may thus warrant more comprehensive phylogeographic analyses. Nineteen (24%) of 78 trans-Atlantic species exhibited divergent genetic clusters which correspond with regional subspecies. Three of these trans-Atlantic divergences were paraphyletic. Our study demonstrates the effectiveness of COI barcodes for identifying Scandinavian birds and highlights taxa for taxonomic review. The standardized DNA barcoding approach amplified the power of our regional studies by enabling independently obtained datasets to be merged with the established avian barcode library.

Subfields: Genetics, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/67b3a8626505d62ca3ad311eccc9cf0b80f1ec14

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Citations in the corpus

Taxonomic recommendations for British birds: Sixth report (2012, background): “6% sequence divergence in the CO1 gene) from Eurasian Whimbrels in Scandinavia (N. p. phaeopus; Johnsen et al. 2010) and Eastern Asia (Numenius phaeopus variegatus; Kerr et al.”
Barcoding's next top model: an evaluation of nucleotide substitution models for specimen identification (2012, background): “…taxonomic groups including butterflies (Hajibabaei et al. 2006; Lukhtanov et al. 2009; Dincă et al. 2011), birds (Kerr et al. 2009a, b, 2007; Johnsen et al. 2010), fishes (Ward et al. 2005; Hubert et al. 2008; Rasmussen et al. 2009; Wong et al. 2009; Steinke et al. 2009a,b) and bats…”