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López De Heredia UAuthorMora-Márquez FAuthorSoto àCorresponding AuthorddRAD Sequencing-Based Identification of Genomic Boundaries and Permeability in Quercus ilex and Q. suber Hybrids
Publicated to:Frontiers In Plant Science. 11 (564414): 564414- - 2020-09-04 11(564414), DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2020.564414
Authors: Lopez de Heredia, Unai; Mora-Marquez, Fernando; Goicoechea, Pablo G; Guillardin-Calvo, Laura; Simeone, Marco C; Soto, Alvaro
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Abstract
© Copyright © 2020 López de Heredia, Mora-Márquez, Goicoechea, Guillardín-Calvo, Simeone and Soto. Hybridization and its relevance is a hot topic in ecology and evolutionary biology. Interspecific gene flow may play a key role in species adaptation to environmental change, as well as in the survival of endangered populations. Despite the fact that hybridization is quite common in plants, many hybridizing species, such as Quercus spp., maintain their integrity, while precise determination of genomic boundaries between species remains elusive. Novel high throughput sequencing techniques have opened up new perspectives in the comparative analysis of genomes and in the study of historical and current interspecific gene flow. In this work, we applied ddRADseq technique and developed an ad hoc bioinformatics pipeline for the study of ongoing hybridization between two relevant Mediterranean oaks, Q. ilex and Q. suber. We adopted a local scale approach, analyzing adult hybrids (sensu lato) identified in a mixed stand and their open-pollinated progenies. We have identified up to 9,435 markers across the genome and have estimated individual introgression levels in adults and seedlings. Estimated contribution of Q. suber to the genome is higher, on average, in hybrid progenies than in hybrid adults, suggesting preferential backcrossing with this parental species, maybe followed by selection during juvenile stages against individuals with higher Q. suber genomic contribution. Most discriminating markers seem to be scattered throughout the genome, suggesting that a large number of small genomic regions underlie boundaries between these species. A noticeable proportion of the markers (26%) showed allelic frequencies in adult hybrids very similar to one of the parental species, and very different from the other; a finding that seems relevant for understanding the hybridization process and the occurrence of adaptive introgression. Candidate marker databases developed in this study constitute a valuable resource to design large scale re-sequencing experiments in Mediterranean sclerophyllous oak species and could provide insight in species boundaries and on adaptive introgression between Q. suber and Q. ilex.
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Quality index
Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel
The work has been published in the journal Frontiers In Plant Science due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2020, it was in position 17/235, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Plant Sciences. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.
From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.02. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)
This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:
- Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 1.24 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
- Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 5.4 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)
Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-10, the following number of citations:
- WoS: 19
- Scopus: 21
- Europe PMC: 8
- Google Scholar: 31
Impact and social visibility
Leadership analysis of institutional authors
This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Italy; United Kingdom.
There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (LOPEZ DE HEREDIA LARREA, UNAI) and Last Author (SOTO DE VIANA, ALVARO).
the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been SOTO DE VIANA, ALVARO.