Islands in the Genome Promote Speciation
Have you ever wondered how the myriad insect forms—beetles, flies, dragonflies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, ants, wasps, bees, and countless others—evolved? . Insects make up 75% of all species known. The large number of insect species is probably a result of a combination of one or more factors: a high rate of formation of new species, or speciation, an ability to adapt to new environments and exp...Sunflower speciation highlights roles for transposable elements in evolution
In a finding that furthers our understanding of how hybridization may contribute to genome changes and the evolution of new species, researchers have found that the genomes of three sunflower species that arose in evolution as hybrids of the same two parental types have undergone a massive proliferation of genetic entities known as transposable elements. The findings are reported by Mark Ungerer...