Theoretical Framework of the Adaptive Evolution of Premating Isolation

关于新物种是如何形成的，我们的知识仍有很大差距。物种形成的关键阶段之一可能往往是形成交配偏好，以防止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，这些机制可以降低由一对杂交个体产生的健康和可生育的后代的数量。新兴物种也可能占据不同的栖息地，在这些栖息地中，不同的特征可能有助于生存。该项目还将评估这一现象在物种形成中的作用。通过集中研究物种形成过程中种群之间接触的后果，该项目将有助于阐明什么机制产生和维持生物多样性。对这些过程的探索对保护这种多样性也有影响。随着人类干扰侵蚀障碍和改变物种范围，面对密切相关物种之间的新接触，了解促进物种分化和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.