Project description:Understanding the conditions that promote the evolution of reproductive isolation, and thus speciation. Here we empirically test some of the key predictions of speciation theory (Coyne 2004; Kohn 2005) by experimentally evolving the initial stages of speciation in yeast. After allowing replicate populations to adapt to two divergent environments, we observed the consistent, de novo evolution of two forms of postzygotic isolation: reduced rate of mitotic reproduction and reduced efficiency of meiotic reproduction. In general, divergent selection resulted in greater reproductive isolation than parallel selection, as predicted by ecological speciation theory. Our experimental system allowed for the first controlled comparison of the relative importance of ecological and genetic mechanisms of isolation, and the novel ability to quantify the effects of antagonistic epistasis. For mitotic reproduction, hybrid inferiority was conditional upon the selective environments and was both ecological and genetic in basis. In contrast, isolation associated with meiotic reproduction was unconditional and was caused solely by genetic mechanisms. Overall, our results show that adaption to divergent environments promotes the evolution of isolation through antagonistic epistasis, providing evidence of a plausible common avenue to speciation and adaptive radiation in nature (Schluter 2000,2001: Funk 2006) Keywords: Speciation, antagonistic epistasis, divergent adaptation
Project description:Genomes of closely-related species or populations often display localized regions of enhanced relative sequence divergence, termed genomic islands. It has been proposed that these islands arise through selective sweeps and/or barriers to gene flow. Here, we genetically dissect a genomic island that controls flower color pattern differences between two subspecies of Antirrhinum, A.m.striatum and A.m.pseudomajus, and relate it to clinal variation across a natural hybrid zone. We show that selective sweeps likely raised relative divergence at two tightly-linked MYB-like transcription factors, leading to distinct flower patterns in the two subspecies. The two patterns provide alternate floral guides and create a strong barrier to gene flow where populations come into contact. This barrier affects the selected flower color genes and tightly linked loci, but does not extend outside of this domain, allowing gene flow to lower relative divergence for the rest of the chromosome. Thus, both selective sweeps and barriers to gene flow play a role in shaping genomic islands: sweeps cause elevation in relative divergence while heterogeneous gene flow flattens the surrounding “sea”, making the island of divergence stand out. By showing how selective sweeps establish alternative adaptive phenotypes that lead to barriers to gene flow, our study sheds light on possible mechanisms leading to reproductive isolation and speciation.