Diverse pathways to speciation revealed by marine snails

Trends Genet. 2024 Feb 22:S0168-9525(24)00002-7. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2024.01.002. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTSpeciation is a key evolutionary process that is not yet fully understood. Combining population genomic and ecological data from multiple diverging pairs of marine snails (Littorina) supports the search for speciation mechanisms. Placing pairs on a one-dimensional speciation continuum, from undifferentiated populations to species, obscured the complexity of speciation. Adding multiple axes helped to describe either speciation routes or reproductive isolation in the snails. Divergent ecological selection repeatedly generated barriers between ecotypes, but appeared less important in completing speciation while genetic incompatibilities played a key role. Chromosomal inversions contributed to genomic barriers, but with variable impact. A multidimensional (hypercube) approach supported framing of questions and identification of knowledge gaps and can be useful to understand speciation in many other systems.PMID:38395682 | DOI:10.1016/j.tig.2024.01.002

Source: Trends in Genetics : TIG - February 23, 2024 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Kerstin Johannesson Rui Faria Alan Le Moan Marina Rafajlovi ć Anja Marie Westram Roger K Butlin Sean Stankowski Source Type: research