Lab-meeting on good genes and ecological speciation January 13 2009

It is time for lab-meetings again, and what would be more suitable to start with than a theoretical paper about "good genes" and speciation? You will find this paper here, and it has recently been published in Science by van Doorn et al. You will find the abstract below:

On the Origin of Species by Natural and Sexual Selection

G. Sander van Doorn,^1,2,*, Pim Edelaar,^3,4,5,* Franz J. Weissing³

Ecological speciation is considered an adaptive response to selection for local adaptation. However, besides suitable ecological conditions, the process requires assortative mating to protect the nascent species from homogenization by gene flow. By means of a simple model, we demonstrate that disruptive ecological selection favors the evolution of sexual preferences for ornaments that signal local adaptation. Such preferences induce assortative mating with respect to ecological characters and enhance the strength of disruptive selection. Natural and sexual selection thus work in concert to achieve local adaptation and reproductive isolation, even in the presence of substantial gene flow. The resulting speciation process ensues without the divergence of mating preferences, avoiding problems that have plagued previous models of speciation by sexual selection.

Time and place as usual: "Darwin" at 10.15 (immediately after the "Pheromone group"). It would be great if you could respond below if you will come (or not!), as I am not sure how many are back in town. Any fika-volunteer?