[Leps-l] Monarchs - subspecies, genetics and migration

[Roger Kuhlman]

Ah but Bruce the argument you are making applies to species and not to subspecies does it not? Also there has to be more to the argument that you have provided for it to be valid. If it was not, then Blue and Golden-winged Warblers should not be separate species since they quite frequently interbreed. I believe the same applies to the Alfalfa Butterfly (Colias eurytheme) and the Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice) with their numerous interbreed individuals.

Roger Kuhlman
________________________________
From: Leps-l <leps-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Walsh, Bruce - (jbwalsh) <jbwalsh at arizona.edu>
Sent: Sunday, May 29, 2022 3:17 AM
To: leps-l at mailman.yale.edu <leps-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: [Leps-l] Monarchs - subspecies, genetics and migration

I've followed this thread for a little while and have avoided commenting on it.  In large part, because it started when I was in Nairobi, and had low band-width.  Now my travels have now taken me to Hobart, with its higher bandwidth!  Alas, no collecting/watching in either location, work-related (teaching and on an advisory committee).

>From a genetics standpoint, the issue can be clearly framed in terms of gene exchange.  In a classic paper, Sewall Wright (one of the founders of population genetics) noted that a single exchange of an individual between populations per generation is about all that is needed to keep two neutral subpopulations from diverging (more formally, 4Nm >> 1, where m is the exchange rate and N the population size).  So the issue becomes: "is there something about the migrationing  population that results in a drastic reduction in gene exchange with the non-migration population".   Unless there is differential mate choice when they come into contact (which they will do each year), don't think the case can be made.

cheers

bruce


Bruce Walsh
Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Professor, Public Health
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Professor, Plant Sciences
Adjunct Professor, Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Adjunct Professor, Molecular and Cellular Biology
Member, Graduate Committees on Applied Math, Insect Sciences, Genetics, Statistics
University of Arizona

Evolution and Selection of Quantitative Traits (Oxford 2018)
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/evolution-and-selection-of-quantitative-traits-9780198830870
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0198830874

Genetics and Analysis of Quantitative Traits (Sinauer <Oxford>  1998)
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/genetics-and-analysis-of-quantitative-traits-9780878934812
https://www.amazon.com/Genetics-Analysis-Quantitative-Traits-Michael/dp/0878934812

Google Scholar
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7iQEFwIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao



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