Changes in selection pressure can facilitate hybridization during biological invasion in a Cuban lizard.

ABSTRACT: Hybridization is among the evolutionary mechanisms most frequently hypothesized to drive the success of invasive species, in part because hybrids are common in invasive populations. One explanation for this pattern is that biological invasions coincide with a change in selection pressures that limit hybridization in the native range. To investigate this possibility, we studied the introduction of the brown anole (Anolis sagrei) in the southeastern United States. We find that native populations are highly genetically structured. In contrast, all invasive populations show evidence of hybridization among native-range lineages. Temporal sampling in the invasive range spanning 15 y showed that invasive genetic structure has stabilized, indicating that large-scale contemporary gene flow is limit

SUBMITTER: Bock DG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8594494 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature