Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2011
Publication Title
Genetica
Abstract
The multiple species concepts currently in use by the scientific community (e. g. Morphological, Biological, Phylogenetic) are united in that they all aim to capture the process of divergence between populations. For example, the Biological Species Concept defines a species as a natural group of organisms that is reproductively isolated from other such groups. Here we synthesize nearly a century of research on the ciliate genus Paramecium that highlights the shortcomings of our prevailing notions on the nature of species. In this lineage, there is discordance between morphology, mating behavior, and genetics, features assumed to be correlated, at least after sufficient time has passed, under all species concepts. Intriguingly, epigenetic phenomena are well documented in ciliates where they influence features such as germline/soma differentiation and mating type determination. Consequently, we hypothesize that divergence within ciliate populations is due to a dynamic interaction between genetic and epigenetic factors. The growing list of examples of epigenetic phenomena that potentially impact speciation (i. e. by influencing the dynamics of sex chromosomes, fate of hybrids, zygotic drive and genomic conflicts) suggests that interactions between genetics and epigenetics may also drive divergence in other eukaryotic lineages.
Keywords
Ciliates, Epigenetics, Molecular evolution, Paramecium, Species concepts
Volume
139
Issue
5
First Page
677
Last Page
684
DOI
10.1007/s10709-011-9571-3
ISSN
00166707
Rights
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
Recommended Citation
Hall, Meaghan S. and Katz, Laura A., "On the Nature of Species: Insights from Paramecium and Other Ciliates" (2011). Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/bio_facpubs/122
Comments
Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.