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A postzygotic mutation (or post-zygotic mutation) is a change in an organism's genome that is acquired during its lifespan, instead of being inherited from its parent(s) through fusion of two haploid gametes. Mutations that occur after the zygote has formed can be caused by a variety of sources that fall under two classes: spontaneous mutations ...
The mechanisms of reproductive isolation are a collection of evolutionary mechanisms, behaviors and physiological processes critical for speciation.They prevent members of different species from producing offspring, or ensure that any offspring are sterile.
[3]: 354 [4] [5] Differences in behavior or biology that inhibit formation of hybrid zygotes are termed prezygotic isolation. Reinforcement can be shown to be occurring (or to have occurred in the past) by measuring the strength of prezygotic isolation in a sympatric population in comparison to an allopatric population of the same species.
Reinforcement, under his definition, included prezygotic divergence and complete post-zygotic isolation. [18] Servedio and Noor include any detected increase in prezygotic isolation as reinforcement, as long as it is a response to selection against mating between two different species. [4]
Hybrid inviability is a post-zygotic barrier, which reduces a hybrid's capacity to mature into a healthy, fit adult. [1] The relatively low health of these hybrids relative to pure-breed individuals prevents gene flow between species.
Support for the reproductive character displacement hypothesis comes from observations of sympatric species in overlapping habitats in nature. Increased prezygotic isolation, which is associated with reproductive character displacement, has been observed in cicadas of genus Magicicada, stickleback fish, and the flowering plants of the genus Phlox.
Postzygotic incompatibilities - reproductive barrier arising after zygote formation, including inviability and sterility. Post-mating barriers - Reproductive barriers that act after mating. These can include barriers that act after mating but before the zygote is formed (Post-mating, pre-zygotic barriers).
A major aspect of speciation research is to determine the nature of the barriers that inhibit reproduction. Botanists often consider the zoological classifications of prezygotic and postzygotic barriers as inadequate. [259] The examples provided below give insight into the process of speciation.