Abstract
When two distinct gene pools meet and produce fertile hybrids, the outcome varies
from gene to gene. At some loci a universally favorable allele has been established on
one side. Such alleles soon spread through the whole population and hence differences
are rarely observed. At other loci different alleles may be favored in different environments
or genetic backgrounds; selection maintains these differences in the face of random
mixing. At other loci—perhaps at most of those we observe in molecular surveys—different
alleles may have been established by chance and may have no
appreciable effect on fitness. These differences gradually fade away, at a rate that
depends on the strength of selection against introgression at the other loci with which
they are associated.
The frequencies of the various genotypes found in a hybrid zone tell us about the
overall strength of the selection, the number of genes involved, the rate of individual
dispersal, and the ease with which alleles cross from one gene pool into the other. The
aim of this chapter is to explain how data on discrete markers and on quantitative traits
can be used to estimate such parameters. We illustrate the methods using examples
from some of the hybrid zones that are discussed in more detail elsewhere in this book
and use computer simulations to show that the estimates do not depend on exactly
how selection maintains the differences between the hybridizing populations. Previous
reviews have considered the wider questions of what hybrid zones can tell us about
species and speciation and what role they themselves might play (Barton and Hewitt,
1985, 1 989; Hewitt, 1988; Harrison and Rand, 1989; see also Ch. I ). We concentrate
instead on the practical issues involved in the genetic analysis of hybrid zones.
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