The information signature of diverging lineages

ABSTRACT Divergence and speciation are the generators of biodiversity on Earth. Yet, we still seek to understand why species are unevenly distributed across taxa and geographic settings. This is partly because we lack a way to directly compare aspects of population divergence across unrelated species and an integrative quantitative framework for how geographical setting relates to genetic divergence. Here we postulate that, based on communications theory, there is a communications channel between Earth’s surface and the structuring of genomic information among populations. Each species is a separate receiver of this message. Organism traits determine the clarity of that channel. Calculating the partial information decomposition (PID) of genetic metrics under different evolutionary scenarios can measure the signature of this communication. We show in silico how the informational decomposition of 97,200 genetic lattices varies as lineages diverge. The decomposed nodes of Tajima’s D, θ W , and π show strong context-dependent information signatures, while F ST was least informative. Specific decompositions detected whether lineages divergence with or without gene flow better than current SFS-based tools. The study of information in an evolutionary genomic and landscape context suggests it may be a helpful framework and for understanding the diversity of life across Earth and their coevolution.