Patterns of reproductive isolation in the Drosophila subquinaria complex: can reinforced premating isolation cascade to other species?

ABSTRACT: The reinforcement of premating barriers due to reduced hybrid fitness in sympatry may cause secondary sexual isolation within a species as a by-product. Consistent with this, in the fly Drosophila subquinaria, females that are sympatric with D. recens mate at very low rates not only with D. recens, but also with conspecific D. subquinaria males from allopatry. Here, we ask if these effects of reinforcement cascade more broadly to affect sexual isolation with other closely related species. We assay reproductive isolation of these species with D. transversa and find that choosy D. subquinaria females from the region sympatric with D. recens discriminate strongly against male D. transversa, whereas D. subquinaria from the allopatric region do not. This increased sexual isolation cannot be exp

SUBMITTER: Humphreys DP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5804228 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature