SynthesisNature ecology & evolution2025
Meta-analysis reveals that phenotypic plasticity and divergent selection promote reproductive isolation during incipient speciation.
Synthesis in Nature ecology & evolution, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
7 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
- The Evolution of Reproductive Isolation Beyond a Strong First Barrier in Speciation Between Micro-Allopatric Host Races of a Phytophagous Ladybird Beetle,Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Ecological isolation by the Chishui River drives microecology divergence in Daqu.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Population Genomics of Incipient Allochronic Divergence in the Pine Processionary Moth.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- When islands collide: Divergence predicts outcomes of secondary contact during the fusion of Sulawesi's paleo-archipelago.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Reproductive Isolation due to Divergent Ecological Selection Is Accompanied by Vast Genomic Instability in Experimentally Evolved Yeast Populations.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Adaptive epigenetic divergence can facilitate ecological speciation.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The evolution of reproductive isolation is a key evolutionary process, but the factors that shape its development in the early stages of speciation require clarification. Here, using a meta-analysis of 34 experimental speciation studies on arthropods, yeast and vertebrates, we show that populations subject to divergent selection evolved stronger reproductive isolation compared with populations that evolved in similar environments, consistent with ecological speciation theory. However, and contrary to predictions, reproductive isolation did not increase with the number of generations. Phenotypic plasticity could partly explain these results as divergent environments induce a plastic increase in reproductive isolation greater than the effect of divergent selection, but only for pre-mating isolating barriers. Our results highlight that adaptive evolution in response to different environments in conjunction with plasticity can initiate a rapid increase in reproductive isolation in the early stage of speciation.
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Registered trials
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