What can lizards teach us about speciation and adaptation?
Catarina Pinho (BIOPOLIS/CIBIO)
Wall lizards are small diurnal reptiles which are a hallmark of the Mediterranean endemic biodiversity. Because of their extraordinary phenotypic and genetic diversity, they have become important models for speciation and adaptation studies. In this talk we will show how these species’ history has been affected by the ubiquitous presence of gene flow. We will also go through the challenges of delimiting cryptic species which are permeable to gene exchange and the reconstruction of their phylogeny. We will also address how the study of contact zones can give us important notions on how reproductive isolation evolves. Finally, we will show how genomic tools are helping us find the genetic basis of color phenotypes and how we are addressing the evolutionary causes and consequences of intrapopulational polymorphisms.
Thursday, May 26, 2022, at 12h00-13h00 (Lisbon, Portugal time)