Shifting Balancing Selection Underlies an Inversion Cline in Eurasian Blackcap
Jun Ishigohoka, Miriam Liedvogel · 2026
Read Shifting Balancing Selection Underlies an Inversion Cline in Eurasian Blackcap by Jun Ishigohoka, Miriam Liedvogel (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13270080.txt.
Description
Jun Ishigohoka and Miriam Liedvogel published a journal article in 2026 on a chromosome inversion, a flipped DNA segment, in the Eurasian blackcap, a migratory songbird. The inversion's frequency falls steadily across the species' whole range, unlike typical narrow gradients. It is rarer where migration is shorter and rarest in island birds that do not migrate.
Population modeling pointed to a form of selection that favors the inversion when it is uncommon, with a lower best frequency on islands. The inversion likely sat at its best frequency in an ice-age refuge. Populations then spread after the ice retreated, and selection shifted when birds colonized islands. The authors call this the first case of such selection behind an inversion gradient.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Jun Ishigohoka, Miriam Liedvogel |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 45339 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |