Tournament ABC analysis of the western Palaearctic population history of an oak gall wasp, Synergus umbraculus

• DOI: 10.1111/mec.14372
• Publication Date: 2017-10-05T05:56:35Z
• Authors: Graham N. Stone; Sarah C. White; György Csóka; George Melika; Serap Mutun; Zsolt Pénzes; S. Ebrahim Sadeghi; Karsten Schönrogge; Majid Tavakoli; James A. Nicholls
• Keywords: Approximate Bayesian Computation

Abstract Approximate Bayesian computation ( ABC ) is a powerful and widely used approach in inference of population history. However, the computational effort required to discriminate among alternative historical scenarios often limits set that compared those considered more likely priori. While justifiable, this will fail consider unexpected but well‐supported histories. We hierarchical tournament approach, which subsets are first round analyses winners second analysis, reconstruct history an oak gall wasp, Synergus umbraculus (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae) across Western Palaearctic. 4,233 bp sequence data seven loci explore relationships between four putative Pleistocene refuge populations Iberia, Italy, Balkans Asia. support for 148 eight pools, each pool comprising all possible rearrangements over given topology relationships, with or without founding one by admixture unsampled “ghost” population. found very little directional “out east” scenario previously inferred other wasp community members. Instead, best‐supported models identified Iberia as first‐regional diverge from others late Pleistocene, followed divergence Asia, Italian through Balkans. compare these results what known members community, strengths weaknesses using phylogeographic model space.