Evaluation of genetic isolation within an island flora reveals unusually widespread local adaptation and supports sympatric speciation.

ABSTRACT: It is now recognized that speciation can proceed even when divergent natural selection is opposed by gene flow. Understanding the extent to which environmental gradients and geographical distance can limit gene flow within species can shed light on the relative roles of selection and dispersal limitation during the early stages of population divergence and speciation. On the remote Lord Howe Island (Australia), ecological speciation with gene flow is thought to have taken place in several plant genera. The aim of this study was to establish the contributions of isolation by environment (IBE) and isolation by community (IBC) to the genetic structure of 19 plant species, from a number of distantly related families, which have been subjected to similar environmental pressures over comparable

SUBMITTER: Papadopulos AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4071517 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature