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← All articlesEditorial brief · abstract-levelScore 54/100Confidence high
biorxiv2026-09-04mtDNAevolutionspeciation

African giant shrews show mitonuclear discordance from repeated hybridization, not one messy tree

Genome-wide ddRAD plus mitochondrial data across sub-Saharan Crocidura olivieri reveal extensive mitonuclear discordance caused by repeated introgression, three major lineages, four introgression events, and five geographically structured lineages still exchanging genes. Mitochondria here are the discordant tape, not the physiology.

Mito.news · at a glance

Signal profile (abstract-level)

mtDNA · evolution · speciation

Score 54/100BIORXIVhigh confidencemtDNA
54
Importance
50
Mito signal
25
Dysfunction
75
Evidence
30
Translational

Editorial signal profile from the abstract (importance score, mito keywords, dysfunction tags, evidence density, translational cues). Not a figure reproduced from the preprint PDF.

Finding. The African giant shrew is a continent-wide small mammal whose mitochondrial tree does not match its nuclear genome. Dianat, Mikula and colleagues show that mismatch is repeated hybridization, not a single messy ancestor. Three major lineages, four introgression events, five still-mixing geographic groups, and expansions timed to Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene climate (and maybe people).

Score 54. Mitonuclear evolution. High confidence in the genomic claim. Not an organelle-function paper.

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Source preprint

Incipient speciation, rapid expansion and repeated introgressive hybridization in an African Giant Shrew ( Crocidura olivieri )

10.64898/2026.09.02.748917

Dianat M, Nicolas V, Voet I, Bryja J, Demos TC, Denys C, Ortiz D, Kerbis Peterhans JC, Thom G, Konečný A, Mikula O.

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