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Data from: Evolutionary déjà vu? A case of convergent evolution in an ant-plant association

Probst, Rodolfo1

Published Jun 06, 2024; Updated Aug 30, 2024 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4j0zpc8m9

Data files

Jun 06, 2024 version files 924.98 MB
Aug 30, 2024 version files 924.99 MB

Abstract

Obligatory ant-plant symbioses often appear to be single evolutionary shifts within particular ant lineages; however, convergence can be revealed once natural history observations are complemented with molecular phylogenetics. Here we describe a remarkable example of convergent evolution in an ant-plant symbiotic system. Exclusively arboreal, Myrmelachista species can be generalized opportunists nesting in several plant species or obligately symbiotic, live-stem nesters of a narrow set of plant species. Instances of specialization within Myrmelachista are known from northern South America and throughout Middle America. In Middle America, a diverse radiation of specialists occupies understory treelets of lowland rainforests. The morphological and behavioural uniformity of specialists suggests that they form a monophyletic assemblage, diversifying after a single origin of specialization. Using ultraconserved element phylogenomics and ancestral state reconstruction, we show that shifts from opportunistic to obligately symbiotic evolved independently in South and Middle America. Furthermore, our analyses strongly support a remarkable case of convergence within the Middle American radiation, with two independently evolved specialist clades, arising nearly simultaneously from putative opportunistic ancestors during the late Pliocene. This repeated evolution of a complex phenotype suggests similar mechanisms behind trait shifts from opportunists to specialists, generating further questions about the selective forces driving specialization.