Sie befinden Sich nicht im Netzwerk der Universität Paderborn. Der Zugriff auf elektronische Ressourcen ist gegebenenfalls nur via VPN oder Shibboleth (DFN-AAI) möglich. mehr Informationen...
A long-standing goal of speciation research is to describe how reproductive isolating barriers develop, when they arise along the ‘speciation continuum’, and to measure the strength with which they restrict gene flow.
Drosophila arizonae
and
D. mojavensis
are a recently diverged sister species pair distributed from the southwestern United States through southern Mexico. While incipient speciation in
D. mojavensis
has been studied for decades, relatively little attention has been directed toward
D. arizonae
, despite the fact that previous studies have revealed evidence for significant genetic differentiation among populations separated by geographic barriers. Here, we examine the potential for both pre- and post-mating reproductive isolation in
D. arizonae
from geographically isolated parts of North America. We find evidence for strong premating isolation between flies from northern mainland Mexico and southern mainland Mexico, but no evidence for postmating isolation in any cross. This study highlights the utility of the
D. arizonae
system for further investigation into the early evolution of premating isolation, and reinforces the potential of the
D. arizonae/D. mojavensis
system as a whole for studying the evolution of reproductive isolation at a range of divergence times.