Testing for intraspecific postzygotic isolation between cryptic lineages of Pseudacris crucifer.

ABSTRACT: Phenotypically cryptic lineages appear common in nature, yet little is known about the mechanisms that initiate and/or maintain barriers to gene flow, or how secondary contact between them might influence evolutionary trajectories. The consequences of such contact between diverging lineages depend on hybrid fitness, highlighting the potential for postzygotic isolating barriers to play a role in the origins of biological species. Previous research shows that two cryptic, deeply diverged intraspecific mitochondrial lineages of a North American chorus frog, the spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer), meet in secondary contact in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Our study quantified hatching success, tadpole survival, size at metamorphosis, and development time for experimentally generated pure line

SUBMITTER: Stewart KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3867898 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature