Genomic divergence, demographic histories, and male territorial response reveal asymmetric reproductive barriers in allopatric eastern versus western Nashville warbler subspecies (Leiothlypis ruficapilla)

In song-learning birds, vocalizations are species recognition signals and may act as premating reproductive barriers; for allopatric taxa, testing how the signals can influence the speciation processes is quite challenging. This study aims to understand genomic divergence and species recognition via songs in 2 allopatric taxa, eastern and western Nashville warblers (Leiothlypis ruficapilla ruficapilla vs. Leiothlypis ruficapilla ridgwayi). We performed playback experiments to assess their reciprocal behavioral responses, which suggests an asymmetric barrier: the eastern L. r. ruficapilla discriminates between the 2 songs, but the western L. r. ridgwayi does not. Using whole-genome sequencing, we also examined the extent of the taxa’s genomic divergence and estimated their demographic history. We identified dozens of highly differentiated genomic regions, as well as fluctuations in historical effective population sizes that indicate independent demographic trajectories during the Pleistocene. To contextualize the magnitude of divergence between L. ruficapilla subspecies, we applied the same genomic analyses to 2 additional eastern-western pairs of parulid warblers, Setophaga virens vs. Setophaga townsendi and Setophaga coronata coronata vs. Setophaga coronata auduboni, which have existing behavior studies but are not in strict allopatry. Our findings provide insights into the role of vocalizations in defining within-pair relationship and the important legacy of isolation during the Pleistocene.