IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v429y2004i6989d10.1038_nature02556.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evidence for ecology's role in speciation

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey S. McKinnon

    (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater)

  • Seiichi Mori

    (Gifu-Keizai University)

  • Benjamin K. Blackman

    (HHMI and Stanford University School of Medicine, Beckman Center B300
    Indiana University)

  • Lior David

    (HHMI and Stanford University School of Medicine, Beckman Center B300
    Stanford University School of Medicine)

  • David M. Kingsley

    (HHMI and Stanford University School of Medicine, Beckman Center B300)

  • Leia Jamieson

    (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater)

  • Jennifer Chou

    (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater)

  • Dolph Schluter

    (University of British Columbia)

Abstract

A principal challenge in testing the role of natural selection in speciation is to connect the build-up of reproductive isolation between populations to divergence of ecologically important traits1,2. Demonstrations of ‘parallel speciation’, or assortative mating by selective environment, link ecology and isolation3,4,5, but the phenotypic traits mediating isolation have not been confirmed. Here we show that the parallel build-up of mating incompatibilities between stickleback populations can be largely accounted for by assortative mating based on one trait, body size, which evolves predictably according to environment. In addition to documenting the influence of body size on reproductive isolation for stickleback populations spread across the Northern Hemisphere, we have confirmed its importance through a new experimental manipulation. Together, these results suggest that speciation may arise largely as a by-product of ecological differences and divergent selection on a small number of phenotypic traits.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey S. McKinnon & Seiichi Mori & Benjamin K. Blackman & Lior David & David M. Kingsley & Leia Jamieson & Jennifer Chou & Dolph Schluter, 2004. "Evidence for ecology's role in speciation," Nature, Nature, vol. 429(6989), pages 294-298, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:429:y:2004:i:6989:d:10.1038_nature02556
    DOI: 10.1038/nature02556
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02556
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature02556?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lizárraga, Joao U.F. & Marquitti, Flavia M.D. & de Aguiar, Marcus A.M., 2024. "Assortativity in sympatric speciation and species classification," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 653(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:429:y:2004:i:6989:d:10.1038_nature02556. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.