Hybrid zone and comparative historical demography of three species of birds in a contact zone in the Atlantic Forest

• Grant number: 13/24645-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2014
• End date: February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Molecular Genetics and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Cristina Yumi Miyaki
• Grantee: Denise Mendes Martins
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/50297-0 - Dimensions US-BIOTA São Paulo: a multidisciplinary framework for biodiversity prediction in the Brazilian Atlantic forest hotspot, AP.BTA.TEM

Abstract

Hybrid zones of sister lineages are ideal regions for investigating the role of geography and ecology in speciation process. The Vale do Rio Paraiba do Sul (VRPS), located in the Atlantic Forest, has been considered an important area of contact between closely related taxa for some vertebrate groups. As models of study, we will use lineages of three species of birds, Conopophaga lineata, Xiphorhynchus fuscus, and Sclerurus scansor, that have previous evidence of hybridization in this contact zone. Cline analyzes and methods based on coalescence will be used for looking into the historical, geographical and temporal contexts that generated the contact zone in VRPS, as well as the pattern of introgression of different DNA classes of the genome (mitochondrial, autosomal, and Z-linked chromosome) between sister lineages from the target species across an avian hybrid zone in VRPS.