The reduction of gene exchange due to a prezygotic isolating mechanism with monogenic inheritance

Abstract

The efficiency of an incomplete prezygotic reproductive isolating mechanism in one- and two-population models is studied. The isolating mechanism studied has a monogenic hereditary basis, and depends on the fact that the various genotypes “choose” different periods or sites to perform their reproductive activity. In the one-population models, the “neutral” gene exchange between the two morphs characterized by the alternative forms of the isolating mechanism decreases drastically only when there is an extremely low frequency of individuals with different genotypes reproducing in the same sites and during the same periods. Furthermore, the reduction in gene exchange caused by the prezygotic isolation is smaller with tight linkage between the gene-determining partial reproductive isolation and the neutral gene. In the two-population models the prezygotic isolation causes a reduction in gene exchange which is smaller with low migration rates, and is negligible for very low rates.