Abstract
Over time, populations of species can expand, contract, and become
isolated, creating subpopulations that can adapt to local conditions.
Understanding how species adapt following these changes is of great
interest, especially as the current climate crisis has caused range
shifts for many species. Here, we characterize how Drosophila innubila
came to inhabit and adapt to its current range: mountain forests in
southwestern USA separated by large expanses of desert. Using population
genomic data from more than 300 wild-caught individuals, we examine four
distinct populations to determine their population history in these
mountain-forests, looking for signatures of local adaptation to
establish a genomic model for this spatially-distributed system with a
well understood ecology. We find D. innubila spread northwards during
the previous glaciation period (30-100 KYA), and has recently expanded
even further (0.2-2 KYA). Surprisingly, D. innubila shows little
evidence of population structure, though consistent with a recent
migration, we find signatures of a population contraction following this
migration, and signatures of recent local adaptation and selective
sweeps in cuticle development and antifungal immunity. However, we find
little support for recurrent selection in these genes suggesting recent
local adaptation. In contrast, we find evidence of recurrent positive
selection in the Toll-signaling system and the Toll-regulated
antimicrobial peptides.