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Interactions among quantitative traits in the course of sympatric speciation

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Abstract

Sympatric speciation, the origin of two or more species from a single local population, has almost certainly been involved in formation of several species flocks1,2,3,4, and may be fairly common in nature5. The most straightforward scenario for sympatric speciation requires disruptive selection favouring two substantially different phenotypes, and consists of the evolution of reproductive isolation between them followed by the elimination of all intermediate phenotypes6. Here we use the hypergeometric phenotypic model7,8,9,10 to show that sympatric speciation is possible even when fitness and mate choice depend on different quantitative traits, so that speciation must involve formation of covariance between these traits. The increase in the number of variable lociaffecting fitness facilitates sympatric speciation, whereas the increase in the number of variable loci affecting mate choice has the opposite effect. These predictions may enable more cases of sympatric speciation to be identified.

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Figure 1: The dynamics of means and variances of size and colour and of the intertrait correlation in the course of sympatric speciation with two traits.
Figure 2
Figure 3: The dynamics of means and variances of size, preference and colour and of the intertrait correlations in the course of sympatric speciation with three traits.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a grant from the NSF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, 20894, Maryland, USA

    Alexey S. Kondrashov

  2. Simon's Rock College, 84 Alford Road, Great Barrington, 01230, Massachusetts, USA

    Fyodor A. Kondrashov

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  1. Alexey S. Kondrashov
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Correspondence to Fyodor A. Kondrashov.

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Kondrashov, A., Kondrashov, F. Interactions among quantitative traits in the course of sympatric speciation. Nature 400, 351–354 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/22514

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