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Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on September 2, 2005.

Genetics, Vol. 171, 1885-1894, December 2005, Copyright © 2005
doi:10.1534/genetics.105.043380

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A Test of Founder Effect Speciation Using Multiple Loci in the Auklets (Aethia spp.)

H. E. Walsh*,1, I. L. Jones{dagger} and V. L. Friesen*

* Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada and {dagger} Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland A1B 3X9, Canada

1 Corresponding author: Department of Biology, University of Washington, Box 351800, Seattle, WA 98195-1800.
E-mail: hwalsh{at}u.washington.edu

Whether speciation results more frequently from the genetic consequences of founder events or from gradual genetic divergence of large populations is a matter of debate. In this study, multiple analyses were applied to data from three loci (cytochrome b, {alpha}-enolase intron VIII, and MHC class II B) to test for founder effects associated with speciation in Aethia (Aves: Alcidae), a genus of seabirds thought to have undergone a rapid founder-induced radiation. Effective population sizes (Ne) were derived from estimators of {theta} based on allelic diversity and the coalescent and from data on trans-species polymorphism. Results indicated that Ne has been on the order of 105–106 individuals throughout the evolutionary histories of least and crested auklets (A. pusilla and A. cristatella, respectively) and that Ne of the ancestral species was at least 16,000 individuals. Computer simulations of MHC evolution indicated that a single-generation bottleneck at speciation could not have involved <85 individuals for each species. More moderate simulation scenarios indicated that population size could not have dropped below 2000 individuals at the time of species founding. Demographic history appears to have been stable for the auklets throughout the past several million years, and a founder effect associated with their speciation is unlikely.






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