TIGP (BIO)—Unlocking the Mystery of Mysteries: Avian Speciation through the Lens of Genomics

Abstract

Darwin (1858) considered speciation—" the mystery of mysteries"—to be driven by natural selection in diverse ecological environments. Later, Dobzhansky (1937) hypothesized that speciation is fundamentally a genetic process involving hybrid incompatibility that leads to reproductive isolation between diverging populations. Building on this foundation, Mayr (1942) emphasized the critical role of geographic isolation in establishing reproductive barriers between populations. It wasn't until the 1980s that evolutionary geneticists began to focus on the specific genes underlying reproductive isolation mechanisms. In recent years, theoretical advances and the explosion of genomic data from non-model organisms have shed new light on aspects of speciation processes and mechanisms. This modern perspective has resurrected the importance of ecological adaptation while de-emphasizing the role of geographic isolation in speciation events. This presentation will examine two East Asian avian examples in detail to demonstrate how genomic data enhances our understanding of speciation.