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Speciation is the process by which a single species gives rise to two daughter species, which are genetically distinct and eventually unable to interbreed. Speciation can occur as a result of factors such as geographical isolation, ecological divergence or sexual selection.
Speciation may not be a mechanistically or temporally uniform process. We show divergent evolution of sexual versus habitat isolation and flat versus linear accumulation of the latter for within- versus between-species comparisons, revealing a critical role for species.
The relative importance of the various mechanisms that can drive microbial speciation is poorly understood. Here, Stanojković et al. explore the diversification of the soil cyanobacterium Microcoleus, showing that this genus represents a global speciation continuum of at least 12 lineages, with lineage divergence driven by selection, geographical distance, and the environment.
The evolutionary origin of the domestic dog is uncertain. Here, the authors sequence the whole genomes of 9 extinct Japanese wolves and 11 modern Japanese dogs, applying a phylogenetic analysis to show that dogs may have originated in East Asia from a common ancestor with the Japanese wolf.
Luis Saraiva recalls a 1997 paper by Krings et al., which reports the sequencing of mitochondrial Neanderthal DNA extracted from a 40,000-year-old bone, enabling the direct study of the relationship between ancient and modern humans.
Analysis of Phanerozoic vertebrate community richness suggests there have been constraints on tetrapod diversity dynamics over much of their evolutionary history.
Genomes of eight populations of the copepod Tigriopus californicus show a correlation between rapid mitochondrial evolution and compensatory nuclear evolution, suggesting that mitonuclear incompatibilities might drive speciation in this system.
Allowing biogeographical data to evolve at varying rates on a globe, not a plane, reveals new insights into the origin and dispersal of dinosaurs. The method could also be applied to manifold organisms, from humans to influenza viruses.