Rugged adaptive landscapes shape a complex, sympatric radiation.

ABSTRACT: Strong disruptive ecological selection can initiate speciation, even in the absence of physical isolation of diverging populations. Species evolving under disruptive ecological selection are expected to be ecologically distinct but, at least initially, genetically weakly differentiated. Strong selection and the associated fitness advantages of narrowly adapted individuals, coupled with assortative mating, are predicted to overcome the homogenizing effects of gene flow. Theoretical plausibility is, however, contrasted by limited evidence for the existence of rugged adaptive landscapes in nature. We found evidence for multiple, disruptive ecological selection regimes that have promoted divergence in the sympatric, incipient radiation of 'sharpfin' sailfin silverside fishes in ancient Lake Ma

SUBMITTER: Pfaender J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4721093 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature