Theoretical Framework of the Adaptive Evolution of Premating Isolation

我们对新物种如何形成的认识仍有很大的空白。 物种形成的关键阶段之一往往是交配偏好的发展，这种偏好阻止了不同种群成员之间的杂交。 Servedio和Turelli正在使用一系列数学模型来系统地研究一些拟议的因素在推动这种偏好演变中可能发挥的作用。 他们将评估几种机制的重要性，这些机制降低了成对杂交个体产生的健康和可育后代的数量。 新出现的物种也可能占据不同的生境，在这些生境中，不同的特征可能有助于生存。 本项目还将评估这一现象在推动物种形成方面的作用，通过集中研究处于物种形成过程中的种群之间接触的后果，将有助于阐明产生和维持生物多样性的机制。 对这些过程的探索也对保护这种多样性产生了影响。 随着人类干扰侵蚀屏障并改变物种分布范围，在密切相关的物种之间出现新的接触时，了解促进物种分化与灭绝的条件变得越来越重要。

There are still large gaps in our knowledge of how new species form. One of the critical stages of speciation may often be the development of mating preferences that prevent interbreeding between members of diverging populations. Servedio and Turelli are using a series of mathematical models to systematically examine the roles that a number of proposed factors may play in driving this preference evolution. They will assess the importance of several mechanisms that lower the number of healthy and fertile offspring produced by pairs of hybridizing individuals. Emerging species may also occupy divergent habitats in which different traits may contribute to survival. The role of this phenomenon in driving speciation will also be assessed.By concentrating on the consequences of contact between populations that are in the process of speciating, this project will help to elucidate what mechanisms produce and maintain biological diversity. The exploration of these processes also has implications for the conservation of this diversity. As human disturbance erodes barriers and alters species ranges, it is becoming increasingly essential to understand the conditions that promote species divergence versus extinction in the face of new contacts between closely related species.