Tag : Hybridization

Washington: Researchers at the University of Helsinki found that after multiple hybridisation events between two wood ant species distinct hybrid populations evolved independently towards the same direction, suggesting hybridisation is predictable. Understanding the consequences of hybridisation, i.e. mating between two different species, and giving hybrid offspring, is important because it is a widespread phenomenon in nature. Transferring genetic material between species can also help populations adapt to new challenging environments, such as warming climates. One key aspect of hybridisation is predictability, which is also an important research question: if we could redo the same hybridisation event several times, how often would we get similar results? Researchers at the University of Helsinki took advantage of distinct hybrid wood ant populations identified in Southern Finland to study whether hybridisation was predictable. They found that after multiple hybridisation events between two wood ant species, distinct hybrid populations evolved independently towards the same direction. They are nowadays highly similar to one another in terms of genetic composition, suggesting that the outcome of hybridisation is predictable. Researchers also determined that hybridisation occurred less than 50 ant generations ago, approximately 125 years ago, making it a fairly rapid case of evolution in the wild. "Since hybridisation is also frequent in many other species than ants, our results could help understand its consequences more generally. On the long term, our work would help better apprehend the impact of hybridisation in the wild and assess whether it could help species cope with changing environments, says Docent Jonna Kulmuni, from the ...