Fixation of genetic variation and optimization of gene expression: The speed of evolution in isolated lizard populations undergoing Reverse Island Syndrome.

ABSTRACT: The ecological theory of island biogeography suggests that mainland populations should be more genetically divergent from those on large and distant islands rather than from those on small and close islets. Some island populations do not evolve in a linear way, but the process of divergence occurs more rapidly because they undergo a series of phenotypic changes, jointly known as the Island Syndrome. A special case is Reversed Island Syndrome (RIS), in which populations show drastic phenotypic changes both in body shape, skin colouration, age of sexual maturity, aggressiveness, and food intake rates. The populations showing the RIS were observed on islets nearby mainland and recently raised, and for this they are useful models to study the occurrence of rapid evolutionary change. We investi

SUBMITTER: Buglione M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6846358 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature