Hybridization promotes color polymorphism in the aposematic harlequin poison frog, Oophaga histrionica.

ABSTRACT: Whether hybridization can be a mechanism that drives phenotypic diversity is a widely debated topic in evolutionary biology. In poison frogs (Dendrobatidae), assortative mating has been invoked to explain how new color morphs persist despite the expected homogenizing effects of natural selection. Here, we tested the complementary hypothesis that new morphs arise through hybridization between different color morphs. Specifically, we (1) reconstructed the phylogenetic relationships among the studied populations of a dart-poison frog to provide an evolutionary framework, (2) tested whether microsatellite allele frequencies of one putative hybrid population of the polymorphic frog O. histrionica are intermediate between O. histrionica and O. lehmanni, and (3) conducted mate-choice experiments

SUBMITTER: Medina I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3856739 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature