Gow, Jennifer L and Peichel, Catherine L and Taylor, Eric B (2006) Contrasting hybridization rates between sympatric three-spined sticklebacks highlight the fragility of reproductive barriers between evolutionarily young species. Molecular ecology, 15 (3). pp. 739-752. ISSN 0962-1083
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Abstract
Three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) are a powerful evolutionary model system due to the rapid and repeated phenotypic divergence of freshwater forms from a marine ancestor throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Many of these recently derived populations are found in overlapping habitats, yet are reproductively isolated from each other. This scenario provides excellent opportunities to investigate the mechanisms driving speciation in natural populations. Genetically distinguishing between such recently derived species, however, can create difficulties in exploring the ecological and genetic factors defining species boundaries, an essential component to our understanding of speciation. We overcame these limitations and increased the power of analyses by selecting highly discriminatory markers from the battery of genetic markers now available. Using species diagnostic molecular profiles, we quantified levels of hybridization and introgression within three sympatric species pairs of three-spined stickleback. Sticklebacks within Priest and Paxton lakes exhibit a low level of natural hybridization and provide support for the role of reinforcement in maintaining distinct species in sympatry. In contrast, our study provides further evidence for a continued breakdown of the Enos Lake species pair into a hybrid swarm, with biased introgression of the 'limnetic' species into that of the 'benthic'; a situation that highlights the delicate balance between persistence and breakdown of reproductive barriers between young species. A similar strategy utilizing the stickleback microsatellite resource can also be applied to answer an array of biological questions in other species' pair systems in this geographically widespread and phenotypically diverse model organism.
| Item Type: | Article or Abstract |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com. See corresponding tables with the final published version at 16499699 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.02825.x |
| PubMed ID: | 16499699 |
| Keywords or MeSH Headings: | Animals; Evolution, Molecular; Fresh Water; Gene Flow; Hybridization, Genetic; Microsatellite Repeats/genetics; Reproduction; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Smegmamorpha/genetics/physiology; |
| Subjects: | Cellular and Organismal Processes > Evolution Research Methodologies > Genomics > Molecular Markers Organisms > Model organisms |
| Depositing User: | Library Staff |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Sep 2008 21:57 |
| Last Modified: | 14 Feb 2012 14:42 |
| URI: | http://authors.fhcrc.org/id/eprint/51 |
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