Data from: Population genetic structure and its implications for adaptive variation in memory and the hippocampus on a continental scale in food-caching black-capped chickadees

Here, we ask whether population genetic differentiation and potential isolation among multiple populations of food-caching black-capped chickadees is associated with differences in memory and hippocampal morphology by exploring population genetic structure within and among groups of populations that are divergent to different degrees in hippocampal morphology. Using mitochondrial DNA and 583 AFLP loci, we found that population divergence in hippocampal morphology is not significantly associated with neutral genetic divergence or geographic distance, but instead is significantly associated with differences in winter climate.

These results are consistent with variation in a history of natural selection on memory and hippocampal morphology that creates and maintains differences in these traits regardless of population genetic structure and likely associated gene flow.

Usage notes

PravosudovAFLPs.txt AFLP data; columns are loci, rows are individuals (2 rows per individual). Row 1 is locus labels. Column A = population names; column B = population abbreviation with individual numbers; column C = population numbers.