Hybrid asexuality as a primary postzygotic barrier between nascent species: On the interconnection between asexuality, hybridization and speciation.

ABSTRACT: Although sexual reproduction is ubiquitous throughout nature, the molecular machinery behind it has been repeatedly disrupted during evolution, leading to the emergence of asexual lineages in all eukaryotic phyla. Despite intensive research, little is known about what causes the switch from sexual reproduction to asexuality. Interspecific hybridization is one of the candidate explanations, but the reasons for the apparent association between hybridization and asexuality remain unclear. In this study, we combined cross-breeding experiments with population genetic and phylogenomic approaches to reveal the history of speciation and asexuality evolution in European spined loaches (Cobitis). Contemporary species readily hybridize in hybrid zones, but produce infertile males and fertile but clon

SUBMITTER: Janko K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6849617 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature