Maintenance of Species Boundaries Despite Ongoing Gene Flow in Ragworts.

ABSTRACT: The role of hybridization between diversifying species has been the focus of a huge amount of recent evolutionary research. While gene flow can prevent speciation or initiate species collapse, it can also generate new hybrid species. Similarly, while adaptive divergence can be wiped out by gene flow, new adaptive variation can be introduced via introgression. The relative frequency of these outcomes, and indeed the frequency of hybridization and introgression in general are largely unknown. One group of closely-related species with several documented cases of hybridization is the Mediterranean ragwort (genus: Senecio) species-complex. Examples of both polyploid and homoploid hybrid speciation are known in the clade, although their evolutionary relationships and the general frequency of int

SUBMITTER: Osborne OG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4860686 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature