Different patterns of introgression in a three species hybrid zone among European cave salamanders.

ABSTRACT: Hybrid zones occur where genetically distinct populations meet, mate and produce offspring with mixed ancestry. In Plethodontid salamanders, introgressive hybridization is a common phenomenon, where hybrids backcross with parental populations leading to the spread of new alleles into the parental genomes. Whereas many hybrid zones have been reported in American Plethodontid salamanders, only a single hybrid zone has been documented in European plethodontids so far, which is located at the Apuan Alps in the Italian Peninsula. Here, we describe a previously unreported hybrid zone in the Northern Apennines involving all the three Plethodontid salamander species inhabiting the Italian Peninsula. We found 21 new Speleomantes sites of occurrence, from a hitherto unexplored area located at

SUBMITTER: Bruni G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10447881 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature