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Behavioral isolation in grasshoppers

How does the extent of gene flow help inferring the genes maintaining behavioral isolation?

BACKGROUND

The ‘omics’ era reveals an increasing number of species that are practically indistinguishable in morphology, ecology or even in genetics, despite being reproductively isolated from one another in sympatry. While such species complexes present an example of a taxonomic conundrum for systematists, they are prized as valuable study systems for evolutionary biologists because the behavioral traits that maintain species boundaries can directly be observed. Here, we study one of such systems, sympatric grasshopper species of the genus Chorthippus that have radiated under pervasive gene flow. This offers opportunities for identifying the genes underlying behavioral isolation and speciation.

QUESTIONS

Using a comparative phylogeographic approach, experimental crosses, population genomics, and behavioral assays, we aim to answer:

  1. Did species diverge in allopatric glacial refugia, facilitating the evolution of behavioral isolation?

  2. Is there a genetic association between cues and preference of behavioral isolation, which facilitates the maintenance of species boundaries in the face of gene flow?

  3. Did gene flow play a role in generating hybrid species that are reproductively isolated from their parentals?

IMPLICATIONS

This research program will not only offer new insights on how gene flow interacts with sexual selection during species formation, but it will provide a transferable multi-disciplinary approach for evolutionary studies in organisms characterized by large genomes that remain challenging to study.

TEAM

POTENTIAL BACHELOR/MASTERS PROJECTS

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Ongoing

Project Status

Master

Recruiting?

2

Project Publications

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