Publications by authors named "Alison M Wardlaw"
Article Synopsis
- The evolution of reinforcement can enhance prezygotic isolation between species to avoid producing low-fitness hybrids, but this process can create conflicts between mating strategies of males and females.
- Differences in mating costs for males and females, particularly in postmating prezygotic incompatibilities, lead to disagreements over hybridization benefits.
- A population genetic model shows that this sexual conflict may hinder the long-term success of reinforcement, as adaptations in female gametes to reject unsuitable signals from male gametes can ultimately revert isolation levels back to pre-reinforcement status.
In many taxa, there is a conflict between the sexes over mating rate. The outcome of sexually antagonistic coevolution depends on the costs of mating and natural selection against sexually antagonistic traits. A sexually transmitted infection (STI) changes the relative strength of these costs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAsexual species accumulate deleterious mutations through an irreversible process known as Muller's ratchet. Attempts to quantify the rate of the ratchet have ignored the role of temporal environmental heterogeneity even though it is common in nature and has the potential to affect overall ratchet rate. Here we examine Muller's ratchet in the context of conditional neutrality (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe genetic structure of two related yeast species, one sexual and one asexual, was compared using polymorphic DNA markers. Although both yeasts propagate by asexual budding of haploid cells, Metschnikowia borealis reproduces sexually when compatible strains come in contact. To what extent this has occurred in nature was not known.
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