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Reproductive isolation between two darter species is enhanced and asymmetric in sympatry
Author(s) -
Zhou M.,
Fuller R. C.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of fish biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1095-8649
pISSN - 0022-1112
DOI - 10.1111/jfb.12364
Subject(s) - biology , sympatry , sympatric speciation , allopatric speciation , etheostoma , reproductive isolation , zoology , ecology , fishery , population , demography , fish <actinopterygii> , sociology
Robust reproductive isolation was found between the rainbow darter Etheostoma caeruleum and the orangethroat darter Etheostoma spectabile , as more offspring were produced when conspecific males and females were crossed as compared with heterospecific crosses. Furthermore, fewer eggs resulted from heterospecific crosses involving sympatric E. spectabile females than those using allopatric E. spectabile females, while a similar pattern was not observed in heterospecific crosses using E. caeruleum females. These results suggest that reinforcement, i.e. selection for pre‐zygotic reproductive barriers driven by reduced hybrid fitness, may have contributed to the evolution and maintenance of reproductive barriers between these potentially hybridizing species in sympatry.