ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2019
Rapid experimental evolution of reproductive isolation from a single natural population.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Meta-analysis reveals that phenotypic plasticity and divergent selection promote reproductive isolation during incipient speciation.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Pooled it
- Scientists' Warning on the Rapid Evolution of Parasites in the Anthropocene.Evolutionary applications · 2026Article
- Diversity of obligate ectoparasites and parasitism patterns in wild birds of the Balearic Islands: new chewing lice records for Spain.Parasitology · 2026Article
- Host Co-Occurrence and Population Size Explain Genetic Differentiation and Diversity in Seal Lice.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Reproductive Isolation due to Divergent Ecological Selection Is Accompanied by Vast Genomic Instability in Experimentally Evolved Yeast Populations.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- A species interaction kick-starts ecological speciation in allopatry.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Coupling of Barriers to Gene Exchange: Causes and Consequences.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2024Review
- Adaptive colonization across a parasitism-mutualism gradient.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Rapid vertebrate speciation via isolation, bottlenecks, and drift.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Reproductive isolation arises during laboratory adaptation to a novel hot environment.Genome biology · 2024Article
- How Important Is Sexual Isolation to Speciation?Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2024Review
- Parasite escape mechanisms drive morphological diversification in avian lice.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Chemical Insights into Oxidative and Nitrative Modifications of DNA.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- PHEROMONE COMMUNICATION IN FEATHER-FEEDING WING LICE (INSECTA: PHTHIRAPTERA).The Journal of parasitology · 2023Article
- Predictors of individual performance and evolutionary potential of life-history traits in a hematophagous ectoparasite.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- Long-distance dispersal of pigeons and doves generated new ecological opportunities for host-switching and adaptive radiation by their parasites.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- The assembled and annotated genome of the pigeon louse Columbicola columbae, a model ectoparasite.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2021Article
- Colonization of a novel host by fleas: changes in egg production and egg size.Parasitology research · 2021Article
- Lousy grouse: Comparing evolutionary patterns in Alaska galliform lice to understand host evolution and host-parasite interactions.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
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Abstract
Ecological speciation occurs when local adaptation generates reproductive isolation as a by-product of natural selection. Although ecological speciation is a fundamental source of diversification, the mechanistic link between natural selection and reproductive isolation remains poorly understood, especially in natural populations. Here, we show that experimental evolution of parasite body size over 4 y (approximately 60 generations) leads to reproductive isolation in natural populations of feather lice on birds. When lice are transferred to pigeons of different sizes, they rapidly evolve differences in body size that are correlated with host size. These differences in size trigger mechanical mating isolation between lice that are locally adapted to the different sized hosts. Size differences among lice also influence the outcome of competition between males for access to females. Thus, body size directly mediates reproductive isolation through its influence on both intersexual compatibility and intrasexual competition. Our results confirm that divergent natural selection acting on a single phenotypic trait can cause reproductive isolation to emerge from a single natural population in real time.
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