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Originally published in Science Express on 30 November 2006
Science 22 December 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5807, pp. 1923 - 1925
DOI: 10.1126/science.1135875
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Reports

Homoploid Hybrid Speciation in an Extreme Habitat

Zachariah Gompert,1 James A. Fordyce,2 Matthew L. Forister,3 Arthur M. Shapiro,4 Chris C. Nice1*

According to theory, homoploid hybrid speciation, which is hybrid speciation without a change in chromosome number, is facilitated by adaptation to a novel or extreme habitat. Using molecular and ecological data, we found that the alpine-adapted butterflies in the genus Lycaeides are the product of hybrid speciation. The alpine populations possess a mosaic genome derived from both L. melissa and L. idas and are differentiated from and younger than their putative parental species. As predicted, adaptive traits may allow for persistence in the environmentally extreme alpine habitat and reproductively isolate these populations from their parental species.

1 Department of Biology, Population and Conservation Biology Program, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA.
2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
3 Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89512, USA.
4 Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ccnice{at}txstate.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Hybrid vigor between native and introduced salamanders raises new challenges for conservation.
B. M. Fitzpatrick and H. B. Shaffer (2007)
PNAS 104, 15793-15798
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »

E-Letters:

Read all E-Letters

Homoploid Hybrid Speciation
Vladimir Lukhtanov
Science Online, 13 Mar 2007 [Full text]
Response to Lukhtanov
Zachariah Gompert, et al.
Science Online, 13 Mar 2007 [Full text]

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)