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Founder-Effect Speciation Theory: Failure of Experimental Corroboration
Andrés Moya, Agustí Galiana and Francisco J. Ayala
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Vol. 92, No. 9 (Apr. 25, 1995), pp. 3983-3986
Published by: National Academy of Sciences
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2367471
Page Count: 4
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Abstract
The theory of founder-effect speciation proposes that colonization by very few individuals of an empty habitat favors rapid genetic changes and the evolution of a new species. We report here the results obtained in a 10-year-long and large-scale experiment with Drosophila pseudoobscura designed to test the theory. In our experimental protocol, populations are established with variable numbers of very few individuals and allowed to expand greatly for several generations until conditions of severe competition for resources are reached and the population crashes. A few random survivors are then taken to start a new population expansion and thus initiate a new cycle of founding events, population flushes, and crashes. Our results provide no support for the theories proposing that new species are very likely to appear as by-products of founder events.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America © 1995 National Academy of Sciences