Does divergent natural selection drive the early stages of speciation? (2009-2011)
Abstract
Speciation is the ultimate source of biodiversity. Empirical evidence strongly implicates natural selection in speciation, yet the genetic and ecological mechanisms operating during this process remain unknown. We will use a novel approach to provide the first experimental reconstruction of the early stages of speciation, investigate how genes and ecology drive the process of divergence using experimental evolution in the wild, and use genomic tools to determine if parallel adaptation to different environments involves the same genes. Our study puts forward a comprehensive and novel approach to understand how genes and ecology drive speciation.
