In a new paper in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Dr Gabriel Jamie and Dr Joana Meier explore the phenomenon that the same polymorphisms often recur in many members of a species radiation (e.g. colour/pattern morphs, heterostyly, mating types, shell chirality). This phenomenon is puzzling because speciation often represents a barrier to the inheritance of the ancestral genetic variation underpinning polymorphisms. Generally, only a subset of the ancestral population go on to become founders of the new species. They outline the characteristics of polymorphisms that help their underlying genetic variation get inherited from ancestral standing variation, re-introduced through introgression or re-invented through mutation and also explore the factors influencing whether the requisite balancing selection operates widely across daughter species so that polymorphisms are maintained in many members of the radiation.
Jess Lund awarded an R. C. Lewontin Grant from the Society for the Study of Evolution
The Society for the Study of Evolution has awarded Jess Lund an R. C. Lewontin Graduate Research Excellence Grant, which will enable her to expand her investigations into the fascinating lives of honeyguides. This grant is awarded to students early in their PhD programmes to assist them in enhancing the scope of their research. Thank you to the SSE for their generous support of our work!