J Syst Evol

• Research Article •     Next Articles

Independent colonizations of serpentine habitats shape heterogeneous genomic landscapes of lineage diversification

Pablo Arrufat1*, Noelia Hidalgo-Triana2, Nazaret Keen2, Jaime Francisco Pereña-Ortiz2, Andrés V. Pérez-Latorre2, Amaia Leunda-Esnaola3, 4, Alexandra García-Flórez3, Vladimir R. Kaberdin3, 4, 5, Filip Kolář6, 7, David López-Idiáquez8, Peter B. Pearman1, 5, 9   

  1. 1Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Leioa 48940, Spain
    2 Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Málaga (UMA), Málaga 29071, Spain
    3 Department of Immunology, Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Leioa 48940, Spain
    4 Research Center for Experimental Marine Biology and Biotechnology, University of the Basque Country (PiE-UPV/EHU), Plentzia 48620, Spain
    5 IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao 48009, Spain
    6Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague 12800, Czech Republic
    7Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Průhonice 25243, Czech Republic
    8 Edward Grey Institute, Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3EL, United Kingdom
    9 Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), Scientific Campus of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Leioa 48940, Spain
    *Author for correspondence. E-mail: pablo.arrufat@ehu.eus
  • Received:2026-01-30 Accepted:2026-08-05
  • Supported by:
    The research was supported by grant PID2020-118028GB-I00 to P.B.P from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. P.A. was supported by fellowship PRE_2024_2_0288 from the Basque Government and by travel award FM/d/2023-2-003 from Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.

Abstract: Serpentine soils are characterized by high levels of heavy metals, low nutrient availability, and water scarcity, presenting significant ecological challenges for plant species. Soil variation associated with serpentine outcrops generates sharp environmental contrasts over short geographic distances, providing an opportunity for study of lineage divergence and population structure across a heterogeneous edaphic landscape. Here, we examine the evolutionary history of three often sympatric plant species, Lavandula stoechas L., Phlomis purpurea L. (both Lamiaceae), and Halimium atriplicifolium (Lam) Spach. (Cistaceae), which inhabit adjacent serpentine and non-serpentine habitat in the southern Iberian Peninsula. Using a comparative population genomic framework, we test whether serpentine populations represent distinct evolutionary lineages or parallel colonizations of this edaphic habitat, and to what degree genomic differentiation reflects both edaphic conditions and geographic isolation. Highly supported, maximum likelihood population phylogenies suggest repeated, parallel colonizations of serpentine habitat by all three species. The degree of isolation-by-distance and the geographic distribution of ancestral group membership in populations differ notably among these sympatric species. Demographic simulations revealed low to intermediate levels of recent, asymmetric gene flow, characterized by a directional genetic contribution from serpentine patches into adjacent non-serpentine populations, while genotype-environment associations identified potential candidate loci under edaphic selection. Significant variation in plant height among populations on differing soils represents environmentally associated phenotypic differentiation and suggests ecotypic differences, while the magnitude of this association varies among the species. Together, our results show that parallel radiation to serpentine habitat, population ancestry, isolation-by-distance and ongoing gene flow contribute differentially to population genomic structure in these three species.