Open AccessEvolution of assortative mating following selective introgression of pigmentation genes between two Drosophila species
Author(s) -
David Jean R.,
Ferreira Erina A.,
Jabaud Laure,
Ogereau David,
Bastide Héloïse,
Yassin Amir
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
ecology and evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.17
H-Index - 63
ISSN - 2045-7758
DOI - 10.1002/ece3.8821
Subject(s) - introgression , biology , assortative mating , reproductive isolation , evolutionary biology , genetic algorithm , mating , genome , genetics , drosophila (subgenus) , gene flow , incipient speciation , gene , genetic variation , population , demography , sociology
Abstract Adaptive introgression is ubiquitous in animals, but experimental support for its role in driving speciation remains scarce. In the absence of conscious selection, admixed laboratory strains of Drosophila asymmetrically and progressively lose alleles from one parental species and reproductive isolation against the predominant parent ceases after 10 generations. Here, we selectively introgressed during 1 year light pigmentation genes of D . santomea into the genome of its dark sibling D . yakuba , and vice versa. We found that the pace of phenotypic change differed between the species and the sexes and identified through genome sequencing common as well as distinct introgressed loci in each species. Mating assays showed that assortative mating between introgressed flies and both parental species persisted even after 4 years (~60 generations) from the end of the selection. Those results indicate that selective introgression of as low as 0.5% of the genome can beget morphologically distinct and reproductively isolated strains, two prerequisites for the delimitation of new species. Our findings hence represent a significant step toward understanding the genome‐wide dynamics of speciation‐through‐introgression.