Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 6 February 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5915, pp. 737 - 741
DOI: 10.1126/science.1160006
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Review

Evidence for Ecological Speciation and Its Alternative

Dolph Schluter

Natural selection commonly drives the origin of species, as Darwin initially claimed. Mechanisms of speciation by selection fall into two broad categories: ecological and mutation-order. Under ecological speciation, divergence is driven by divergent natural selection between environments, whereas under mutation-order speciation, divergence occurs when different mutations arise and are fixed in separate populations adapting to similar selection pressures. Tests of parallel evolution of reproductive isolation, trait-based assortative mating, and reproductive isolation by active selection have demonstrated that ecological speciation is a common means by which new species arise. Evidence for mutation-order speciation by natural selection is more limited and has been best documented by instances of reproductive isolation resulting from intragenomic conflict. However, we still have not identified all aspects of selection, and identifying the underlying genes for reproductive isolation remains challenging.

Biodiversity Research Centre and Zoology Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. E-mail: schluter{at}zoology.ubc.ca

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Polymorphic Butterfly Reveals the Missing Link in Ecological Speciation.
N. L. Chamberlain, R. I. Hill, D. D. Kapan, L. E. Gilbert, and M. R. Kronforst (2009)
Science 326, 847-850
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Evolution of climate niches in European mammals?.
C. F. Dormann, B. Gruber, M. Winter, and D. Herrmann (2009)
Biol Lett
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Human Origins and Evolution: Cold Spring Harbor, Deja Vu.
T.D. White (2009)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol
   Abstract »    PDF »
Colloquium Papers: Natural selection in action during speciation.
S. Via (2009)
PNAS 106, 9939-9946
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Colloquium Papers: Genetics and ecological speciation.
D. Schluter and G. L. Conte (2009)
PNAS 106, 9955-9962
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A continuum of genetic divergence from sympatric host races to species in the pea aphid complex.
J. Peccoud, A. Ollivier, M. Plantegenest, and J.-C. Simon (2009)
PNAS 106, 7495-7500
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

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