Skip to main content

Speciation and evolutionary genetics

This section considers studies into speciation and the role of inheritance and variation in individuals and among populations in evolution.

Page 3 of 7

  1. Commercial whaling caused extensive demographic declines in many great whale species, including gray whales that were extirpated from the Atlantic Ocean and dramatically reduced in the Pacific Ocean. The Easte...

    Authors: Anna Brüniche-Olsen, Rick Westerman, Zuzanna Kazmierczyk, Vladimir V. Vertyankin, Celine Godard-Codding, John W. Bickham and J. Andrew DeWoody
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:87
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  2. The common loon (Gavia immer) is one of five species that comprise the avian order Gaviiformes. Loons are specialized divers, reaching depths up to 60 m while staying submerged for intervals up to three minutes. ...

    Authors: Zach G. Gayk, Diana Le Duc, Jeffrey Horn and Alec R. Lindsay
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:64
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. Hybridization is very common in plants, and the incorporation of new alleles into existing lineages (i.e. admixture) can blur species boundaries. However, admixture also has the potential to increase standing ...

    Authors: Martin P. Schilling, Zachariah Gompert, Fay-Wei Li, Michael D. Windham and Paul G. Wolf
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:61
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  4. Differences in species richness among phylogenetic clades are attributed to clade age and/or variation in diversification rates. Access to ecological opportunity may trigger a temporary increase in diversifica...

    Authors: Diana Delicado, Torsten Hauffe and Thomas Wilke
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:55
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  5. Introduced biological control agents have opportunities of population admixture through multiple introductions in the field. However, the importance of population admixture for their establishment success ofte...

    Authors: Hao-Sen Li, Shang-Jun Zou, Patrick De Clercq and Hong Pang
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:36
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  6. Trypanosomatid parasites such as Trypanosoma spp. and Leishmania spp. are a major source of infectious disease in humans and domestic animals worldwide. Fundamental to the host-parasite interactions of these pote...

    Authors: Sara Silva Pereira and Andrew P. Jackson
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:31
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  7. Maintaining variation in immune genes, such as those of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), is important for individuals in small, isolated populations to resist pathogens and parasites. The golden snub-n...

    Authors: Pei Zhang, Kang Huang, Bingyi Zhang, Derek W. Dunn, Dan Chen, Fan Li, Xiaoguang Qi, Songtao Guo and Baoguo Li
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:29
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  8. Marine threespine sticklebacks colonized and adapted to brackish and freshwater environments since the last Pleistocene glacial. Throughout the Holarctic, three lateral plate morphs are observed; the low, part...

    Authors: Kjartan Østbye, Annette Taugbøl, Mark Ravinet, Chris Harrod, Ruben Alexander Pettersen, Louis Bernatchez and Leif Asbjørn Vøllestad
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:14
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  9. Whole genome duplication plays a central role in plant evolution. There are two main classes of polyploid formation: autopolyploids which arise within one species by doubling of similar homologous genomes; in ...

    Authors: Jonna S. Eriksson, Filipe de Sousa, Yann J. K. Bertrand, Alexandre Antonelli, Bengt Oxelman and Bernard E. Pfeil
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:9
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  10. Fungal plant pathogens secrete a large arsenal of hydrolytic enzymes during the course of infection, including peptidases. Secreted peptidases have been extensively studied for their role as effectors. In this...

    Authors: Parvathy Krishnan, Xin Ma, Bruce A. McDonald and Patrick C. Brunner
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:7
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  11. The genomes of all vertebrates harbor remnants of ancient retroviral infections, having affected the germ line cells during the last 100 million years. These sequences, named Endogenous Retroviruses (ERVs), ha...

    Authors: Nicole Grandi, Marta Cadeddu, Jonas Blomberg, Jens Mayer and Enzo Tramontano
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:6
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  12. Populations of herbivorous insects may become genetically differentiated because of local adaptation to different hosts and climates as well as historical processes, and further genetic divergence may occur fo...

    Authors: You-Zhu Wang, Bing-Yan Li, Ary Anthony Hoffmann, Li-Jun Cao, Ya-Jun Gong, Wei Song, Jia-Ying Zhu and Shu-Jun Wei
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:265
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  13. Characterizations of the dynamics of hybrid zones in space and time can give insights about traits and processes important in population divergence and speciation. We characterized a hybrid zone between tanage...

    Authors: Andrea Morales-Rozo, Elkin A. Tenorio, Matthew D. Carling and Carlos Daniel Cadena
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:257
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  14. The transition to a parasitic lifestyle entails comprehensive changes to the selective regime. In parasites, genes encoding for traits that facilitate host detection, exploitation and transmission should be un...

    Authors: B. Feldmeyer, D. Elsner, A. Alleman and S. Foitzik
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:237
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  15. Genetically divergent cryptic species are frequently detected by molecular methods. These discoveries are often a byproduct of molecular barcoding studies in which fragments of a selected marker are used for s...

    Authors: Anne Thielsch, Alexis Knell, Ali Mohammadyari, Adam Petrusek and Klaus Schwenk
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:227
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  16. Interspecies animal hybrids can employ clonal or hemiclonal reproduction modes where one or all parental genomes are transmitted to the progeny without recombination. Nevertheless, some interspecies hybrids re...

    Authors: Dmitry Dedukh, Spartak Litvinchuk, Juriy Rosanov, Dmitry Shabanov and Alla Krasikova
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:220
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  17. Homoplasy affects demographic inference estimates. This effect has been recognized and corrective methods have been developed. However, no studies so far have defined what homoplasy metrics best describe the e...

    Authors: Diego Ortega-Del Vecchyo, Daniel Piñero, Lev Jardón-Barbolla and Joost van Heerwaarden
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:213
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  18. Pleistocene climatic fluctuations are known to be an engine of biotic diversification at higher latitudes, but their impact on highly diverse tropical areas such as the Andes remains less well-documented. Spec...

    Authors: Balaji Chattopadhyay, Kritika M. Garg, Chyi Yin Gwee, Scott V. Edwards and Frank E. Rheindt
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:210
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  19. For Lake Victoria cichlid species inhabiting rocky substrates with differing light regimes, it has been proposed that adaptation of the long-wavelength-sensitive (LWS) opsin gene triggered speciation by sensory d...

    Authors: Yohey Terai, Ryutaro Miyagi, Mitsuto Aibara, Shinji Mizoiri, Hiroo Imai, Takashi Okitsu, Akimori Wada, Shiho Takahashi-Kariyazono, Akie Sato, Herbert Tichy, Hillary D. J. Mrosso, Semvua I. Mzighani and Norihiro Okada
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:200
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  20. Satellite DNAs (stDNAs) are highly repeated sequences that constitute large portions of any genome. The evolutionary dynamics of stDNA (e.g. copy number, nucleotide sequence, location) can, therefore, provide ...

    Authors: Ornjira Prakhongcheep, Watcharaporn Thapana, Aorarat Suntronpong, Worapong Singchat, Khampee Pattanatanang, Rattanin Phatcharakullawarawat, Narongrit Muangmai, Surin Peyachoknagul, Kazumi Matsubara, Tariq Ezaz and Kornsorn Srikulnath
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:193
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  21. Past events like fluctuations in population size and post-glacial colonization processes may influence the relative importance of genetic drift, migration and selection when determining the present day pattern...

    Authors: Maria Cortázar-Chinarro, Ella Z. Lattenkamp, Yvonne Meyer-Lucht, Emilien Luquet, Anssi Laurila and Jacob Höglund
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:189
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  22. Small insertions and deletions occur in humans at a lower rate compared to nucleotide changes, but evolve under more constraint than nucleotide changes. While the evolution of insertions and deletions have bee...

    Authors: Manjusha Chintalapati, Michael Dannemann and Kay Prüfer
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:179
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  23. Demographic bottlenecks erode genetic diversity and may increase endangered species’ extinction risk via decreased fitness and adaptive potential. The genetic status of species is generally assessed using neut...

    Authors: Elena Marmesat, Krzysztof Schmidt, Alexander P. Saveljev, Ivan V. Seryodkin and José A. Godoy
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:158
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  24. The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) plays a central role in immunity and has been given considerable attention by evolutionary ecologists due to its associations with fitness-related traits. Songbirds h...

    Authors: Anna Drews, Maria Strandh, Lars Råberg and Helena Westerdahl
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:152
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  25. Triticeae, the tribe of wheat grasses, harbours the cereals barley, rye and wheat and their wild relatives. Although economically important, relationships within the tribe are still not understood. We analysed...

    Authors: Nadine Bernhardt, Jonathan Brassac, Benjamin Kilian and Frank R. Blattner
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:141
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  26. Evolutionary shifts in bacterial virulence are often associated with a third biological player, for instance temperate phages, that can act as hyperparasites. By integrating as prophages into the bacterial gen...

    Authors: Carolin C. Wendling, Agnes Piecyk, Dominik Refardt, Cynthia Chibani, Robert Hertel, Heiko Liesegang, Boyke Bunk, Jörg Overmann and Olivia Roth
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:98
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  27. Many fungal species occur across a variety of habitats. Particularly lichens, fungi forming symbioses with photosynthetic partners, have evolved remarkable tolerances for environmental extremes. Despite their ...

    Authors: Francesco Dal Grande, Rahul Sharma, Anjuli Meiser, Gregor Rolshausen, Burkhard Büdel, Bagdevi Mishra, Marco Thines, Jürgen Otte, Markus Pfenninger and Imke Schmitt
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:93
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  28. Very little is known on how changes in circadian rhythms evolve. The noctuid moth Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) consists of two strains that exhibit allochronic differentiation in their mating ti...

    Authors: Sabine Hänniger, Pascaline Dumas, Gerhard Schöfl, Steffi Gebauer-Jung, Heiko Vogel, Melanie Unbehend, David G. Heckel and Astrid T. Groot
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:68
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  29. Measuring the evolutionary rate of reproductive isolation is essential to understanding how new species form. Tempo calculations typically rely on fossil records, geological events, and molecular evolution ana...

    Authors: Ashley Saulsberry, Marisa Pinchas, Aaron Noll, Jeremy A. Lynch, Seth R. Bordenstein and Robert M. Brucker
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:37
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  30. The analysis of hybrid zones is crucial for gaining a mechanistic understanding of the process of speciation and the maintenance of species boundaries. Hybrid zones have been studied intensively in terrestrial...

    Authors: Corinna Breusing, Robert C. Vrijenhoek and Thorsten B. H. Reusch
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:13
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  31. The evolutionary dynamics of repeat sequences is quite complex, with some duplicates never having differentiated from each other. Two models can explain the complex evolutionary process for repeated genes—conc...

    Authors: Vanessa Romero, Kazuyoshi Hosomichi, Hirofumi Nakaoka, Hiroki Shibata and Ituro Inoue
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:10
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  32. As bats have recently been described to harbor many different viruses, several studies have investigated the genetic co-variation between viruses and different bat species. However, little is known about the g...

    Authors: Tanja K. Halczok, Kerstin Fischer, Robert Gierke, Veronika Zeus, Frauke Meier, Christoph Treß, Anne Balkema-Buschmann, Sébastien J. Puechmaille and Gerald Kerth
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:5
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  33. Ancient Lake Ohrid, located on the Albania-Macedonia border, is the most biodiverse freshwater lake in Europe. However, the processes that gave rise to its extraordinary endemic biodiversity, particularly in t...

    Authors: Björn Stelbrink, Alena A. Shirokaya, Kirstin Föller, Thomas Wilke and Christian Albrecht
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:273
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  34. Evolutionary histories of parasite and host populations are intimately linked such that their spatial genetic structures may be correlated. While these processes have been relatively well studied in specialist...

    Authors: Benoit Talbot, Maarten J. Vonhof, Hugh G. Broders, Brock Fenton and Nusha Keyghobadi
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:268
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  35. As global climate change transforms average temperature and rainfall, species distributions may meet, increasing the potential for hybridization and altering individual fitness and population growth. Altered r...

    Authors: Zachary Teitel, Agnieszka Klimowski and Lesley G. Campbell
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:266
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  36. A common, 32kb deletion of LCE3B and LCE3C genes is strongly associated with psoriasis. We recently found that this deletion is ancient, predating Human-Denisovan divergence. However, it was not clear why negativ...

    Authors: Petar Pajic, Yen-Lung Lin, Duo Xu and Omer Gokcumen
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:265
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  37. The identification, description and understanding of protein-protein networks are important in cell biology and medicine, especially for the study of system biology where the focus concerns the interaction of ...

    Authors: Erli Pang, Yu Hao, Ying Sun and Kui Lin
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:260
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  38. DNA barcoding has demonstrated that many discrete phenotypes are in fact genetically distinct (pseudo)cryptic species. Genetically identical, isogenic individuals, however, can also express similarly different...

    Authors: Chen Wang, Shobhit Agrawal, Jürgen Laudien, Vreni Häussermann and Christoph Held
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:258
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  39. RAD-seq is a powerful tool, increasingly used in population genomics. However, earlier studies have raised red flags regarding possible biases associated with this technique. In particular, polymorphism on res...

    Authors: Marie Cariou, Laurent Duret and Sylvain Charlat
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:240
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  40. Subtilisin-like serine proteases or Subtilases in fungi are important for penetration and colonization of host. In Hypocreales, these proteins share several properties with other fungal, bacterial, plant and m...

    Authors: Deepti Varshney, Akanksha Jaiswar, Alok Adholeya and Pushplata Prasad
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:220
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  41. There is great controversy as to whether Microsporidia undergo a sexual cycle. In the paradigmatic case of Nosema ceranae, although there is no morphological evidence of sex, some meiosis-specific genes are prese...

    Authors: Soledad Sagastume, Raquel Martín-Hernández, Mariano Higes and Nuno Henriques-Gil
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:216
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  42. Fluorescent proteins are optically active proteins found across many clades in metazoans. A fluorescent protein was recently identified in a ctenophore, but this has been suggested to derive from a cnidarian, ...

    Authors: Warren R. Francis, Lynne M. Christianson, Meghan L. Powers, Christine E. Schnitzler and Steven H. D. Haddock
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:167
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  43. In the duplication-degeneration-complementation (DDC) model, a duplicated gene has three possible fates: it may lose functionality through the accumulation of mutations (nonfunctionalization), acquire a new fu...

    Authors: Robert B. Laprairie, Eileen M. Denovan-Wright and Jonathan M. Wright
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:147
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  44. Understanding the mechanisms and selective forces leading to adaptive radiations and origin of biodiversity is a major goal of evolutionary biology. Acrocephalus warblers are small passerines that underwent an ad...

    Authors: Radka Reifová, Veronika Majerová, Jiří Reif, Markus Ahola, Antero Lindholm and Petr Procházka
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:130
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  45. In recent years, several types of molecular markers and new microscale skeletal characters have shown potential as powerful tools for phylogenetic reconstructions and higher-level taxonomy of scleractinian cor...

    Authors: Anna Maria Addamo, Agostina Vertino, Jaroslaw Stolarski, Ricardo García-Jiménez, Marco Taviani and Annie Machordom
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:108
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Erratum to this article has been published in BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:149

  46. Four plastid regions, rpoB, rpoC1, matK, and trnH-psbA, have been recommended as DNA barcodes for plants. Their success in delimiting species boundaries depends on the existence of a clear-cut difference between ...

    Authors: Sofia Caetano Wyler and Yamama Naciri
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:103
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  49. Examining allelic variation of R-genes in closely related perennial species of Arabidopsis thaliana is critical to understanding how population structure and ecology interact with selection to shape the evolution...

    Authors: James Buckley, Elizabeth Kilbride, Volkan Cevik, Joana G. Vicente, Eric B. Holub and Barbara K. Mable
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:93
    Content type: Research article Published on:
Submit manuscript

Annual Journal Metrics

  • For BMC Evolutionary Biology (former title)

    Citation Impact 2023
    Journal Impact Factor: 2.3
    5-year Journal Impact Factor: 2.3
    Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): 0.959
    SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): 0.887

    Speed 2023
    Submission to first editorial decision (median days): 15
    Submission to acceptance (median days): 193

    Usage 2023
    Downloads: 1,882,764
    Altmetric mentions: 3,013

  • Transparency and Openness
    TOP Factor score - 9

    Peer Community In
    BMC Ecology and Evolution welcomes submissions of pre-print manuscripts recommended by the Peer Community In (PCI) platform. The journal may use PCI reviews and recommendations for the review process if appropriate. For instructions to submit your PCI recommended article, please click here. To find out more, please read our blog. 

Follow

Sign up for article alerts and news from this journal

BMC Ecology and Evolution

ISSN: 2730-7182

Contact us