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Introgression is an important source of genetic variation in natural populations and may contribute to adaptation and even adaptive radiation. [7] It can occur across hybrid zones due to chance, selection or hybrid zone movement. [8]
Hybridization without change in chromosome number is called homoploid hybrid speciation. [1] This is the situation found in most animal hybrids. For a hybrid to be viable, the chromosomes of the two organisms will have to be very similar, i.e., the parent species must be closely related, or else the difference in chromosome arrangement will ...
Some researchers argue that evidence of a hybridization-derived basis for reproductive isolation should be an additional defining criterion for hybrid speciation, [65] but see Moharrek et al. [66] This stricter definition includes polyploid hybrid taxa but only encompasses a handful of well studied cases of homoploid hybrid speciation, e.g ...
Hybrid zones can form from secondary contact. A hybrid zone exists where the ranges of two interbreeding species or diverged intraspecific lineages meet and cross-fertilize. . Hybrid zones can form in situ due to the evolution of a new lineage [1] [page needed] but generally they result from secondary contact of the parental forms after a period of geographic isolation, which allowed their ...
There is some evidence of adaptive evolution in genes linked to brain development, but some of these genes are often associated with diseases, e.g. microcephaly (see Table 2). However, there is a particular interest in the search for adaptive evolution in brain genes, despite the ethical issues surrounding such research.
Rapid sympatric speciation can take place through polyploidy, such as by doubling of chromosome number; the result is progeny which are immediately reproductively isolated from the parent population. New species can also be created through hybridization, followed by reproductive isolation, if the hybrid is favoured by natural selection.
Because hybridization is costly (e.g. giving birth and raising a weak offspring), natural selection favors strong isolation mechanisms that can avoid such outcome, such as assortative mating. [5] Evidence for speciation by reinforcement has been accumulating since the 1990s.
[2] [3] Allopatric speciation is the evolution of species caused by the geographic isolation of two or more populations of a species. In this case, divergence is facilitated by the absence of gene flow. Parapatric speciation is the evolution of geographically adjacent populations into distinct species. In this case, divergence occurs despite ...