Natural selection in action during speciation

Abstract

The role of natural selection in speciation, first described by Darwin, has finally been widely accepted. Yet, the nature and time course of the genetic changes that result in speciation remain mysterious. To date, genetic analyses of speciation have focused almost exclusively on retrospective analyses of reproductive isolation between species or subspecies and on hybrid sterility or inviability rather than on ecologically based barriers to gene flow. However, if we are to fully understand the origin of species, we must analyze the process from additional vantage points. By studying the genetic causes of partial reproductive isolation between specialized ecological races, early barriers to gene flow can be identified before they become confounded with other species differences. This population-level approach can reveal patterns that become invisible over time, such as the mosaic nature of the genome early in speciation. Under divergent selection in sympatry, the genomes of incipient species become temporary genetic mosaics in which ecologically important genomic regions resist gene exchange, even as gene flow continues over most of the genome. Analysis of such mosaic genomes suggests that surprisingly large genomic regions around divergently selected quantitative trait loci can be protected from interrace recombination by "divergence hitchhiking." Here, I describe the formation of the genetic mosaic during early ecological speciation, consider the establishment, effects, and transitory nature of divergence hitchhiking around key ecologically important genes, and describe a 2-stage model for genetic divergence during ecological speciation with gene flow.