Tracing reinforcement through asymmetrical partner preference in the European common vole Microtus arvalis ...

• Main Authors: Beysard, Mathias, Heckel, Gerald, Krebs-Wheaton, Rebecca
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: BioMed Central 2015
• Subjects: 570 Life sciences; biology; Common vole; Microtus arvalis
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.74785; http://boris.unibe.ch/74785/

Background The mechanistic basis of speciation and in particular the contribution of behaviour to the completion of the speciation process is often contentious. Contact zones between related taxa provide a situation where selection against hybridization might reinforce separation by behavioural mechanisms, which could ultimately fully isolate the taxa. One of the most abundant European mammals, the common vole Microtus arvalis, forms multiple natural hybrid zones where rapidly diverging evolutionary lineages meet in secondary contact. Very narrow zones of hybridization spanning only a few kilometres and sex-specific gene flow patterns indicate reduced fitness of natural hybrids and incipient speciation between some of the evolutionary lineages. In this study, we examined the contribution of behavioural mechanisms to the speciation process in these rodents by fine-mapping allopatric and parapatric populations in the hybrid zone between the Western and Central lineages and experimental testing of the partner ...