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Summary: BioMed Central
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BMC Evolutionary Biology
Open AccessResearch article
Divergent adaptation promotes reproductive isolation among
experimental populations of the filamentous fungus Neurospora
Jeremy R Dettman*, James B Anderson and Linda M Kohn
Address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada
Email: Jeremy R Dettman* - jeremy.dettman@utoronto.ca; James B Anderson - jb.anderson@utoronto.ca;
Linda M Kohn - linda.kohn@utoronto.ca
* Corresponding author
Abstract
Background: An open, focal issue in evolutionary biology is how reproductive isolation and
speciation are initiated; elucidation of mechanisms with empirical evidence has lagged behind
theory. Under ecological speciation, reproductive isolation between populations is predicted to
evolve incidentally as a by-product of adaptation to divergent environments. The increased genetic
diversity associated with interspecific hybridization has also been theorized to promote the
development of reproductive isolation among independent populations. Using the fungal model
Neurospora, we founded experimental lineages from both intra- and interspecific crosses, and
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