CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Even though there is not universal criterion for species definition, the key event in speciation research is the advent of reproductive isolation or barriers that prevent gene flow between populations. The search for genetic factors underlying isolating barriers is the field of speciation genetics. The development of sophisticated methods of genetic analysis coupled with statistical advances allowed a finer dissection of the genetic factors underlying the origins of species down to the level of the individual loci and even at the DNA-sequence level. Traditionally, speciation geneticists concentrated, almost exclusively, on genes causing hybrid incompatibilities (specially intrinsic postzygotic barriers). However, barriers to gene flow caused by speciation genes can arise at multiple prezygotic and postzygotic life-history stages. Thus, a general definition of speciation genes should refer to those genes that contributed to the splitting of two lineages by reducing the amount of gene flow between them.