Species are either interbreeding lineages, or ecological lineages, or phylogenetic units, or….
Proponents of the interbreeding, ecological and phylogenetic approaches believe that they are identifying different types of lineages (interbreeding lineages, ecological lineages, phylogenetic lineages), not merely disagreeing over evidence for the same type of lineage.
The estimate of 1 recombination event in 50,000 cell divisions provided by Ruderfer et al. is based on comparing strains from different global and ecological lineages (clinical, vineyard, lab) and may accurately reflect inter-lineage dynamics; however, it may not reflect outcrossing and mating dynamics within lineages and populations in vineyards and woodlands.
We argue that depending on factors such as the nature (whether it is episodic, spatially spread) of ecological opportunity, lineage distribution, and the functional contribution of traits to adaptive diversification, models of diversification between lineages and phenotypes can differ.
They show numerous adaptations to polar environmental conditions, including antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGP) [ 9, 10], and interesting patterns of ecological and lineage diversification [ 10- 12].
Genetic analysis of Escherichia coli O157 H7 strains has shown divergence into two distinct lineages, lineages I and II, that appear to have distinct ecological characteristics, with lineage I strains more commonly associated with human disease.
This species is undergoing a process of sympatric ecological diversification and lineage splitting which makes it a model to study divergent selection and heterogeneous genomic divergence mechanisms [1], [2].
The geographic separation and the large genetic divergence and ecological dissimilarity between lineages suggest vicariance events together with ecologically mediated divergent selection as potential speciation mechanisms in túngara frogs.
These approaches were used to define units for analyzing molecular, morphological and ecological parameters among lineages.
The resulting plots give a visual guide to the patterns of ecological divergence between lineages in each variable.
