Elizabeth Stacy (Life Sciences) co-authored a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences with collaborators from New York University, Princeton University, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Their paper, presents the first chromosome-level reference genome for the hyperdiverse tree genus Metrosideros and population genomics analyses of more than 130 trees representing 11 taxa from across the Hawaiian Islands.
They find that diversification within Hawaiian Metrosideros was fueled by reassortment of an unexpectedly rich pool of ancestral genetic variation rather than the accumulation of novel mutation. Recurring selection on ancestral genetic variants may help to explain how spectacular adaptive radiations can arise from bottlenecked founder populations on remote islands.
