Theoretical Framework of the Adaptive Evolution of Premating Isolation

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

There are still large gaps in our knowledge of how new species form. One of the critical stages of speciation may often be the development of mating preferences that prevent interbreeding between members of diverging populations. Servedio and Turelli are using a series of mathematical models to systematically examine the roles that a number of proposed factors may play in driving this preference evolution. They will assess the importance of several mechanisms that lower the number of healthy and fertile offspring produced by pairs of hybridizing individuals. Emerging species may also occupy divergent habitats in which different traits may contribute to survival. The role of this phenomenon in driving speciation will also be assessed. By concentrating on the consequences of contact between populations that are in the process of speciating, this project will help to elucidate what mechanisms produce and maintain biological diversity. The exploration of these processes also has implications for the conservation of this diversity. As human disturbance erodes barriers and alters species ranges, it is becoming increasingly essential to understand the conditions that promote species divergence versus extinction in the face of new contacts between closely related species.