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Hereditas(Beijing) ›› 2025, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (1): 58-70.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.24-206

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Progress on animal speciation studies

Hong Wu1(), Yuxing Zhang1, Li Yu1,2()   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resource in Yunnan, School of Life Sciences of Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China
    2. Southwest United Graduate School, Kunming 650092, China
  • Received:2024-07-11 Revised:2024-08-17 Online:2025-01-20 Published:2024-09-19
  • Contact: Li Yu E-mail:whzxsg@126.com;yuli@ynu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(31925006);Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Project at Southwest United Graduate School(202302A0370005);Xingdian Talent Fund Project of Yunnan Province(202305AB350001)

Abstract:

Speciation research represents our thinking and exploration about how new species are generated and maintained, and it is one of the most important parts of evolutionary biology. Revealing new species formation modes, processes of reproductive isolation establishment and their intrinsic genetic mechanisms, are not only important issues and primary tasks in the field of speciation, but also the key clues for our understandings about the species diversity in nature. Here, by focusing on animal groups, we first introduced different definitions of species concept, and then summarized present research progress and important breakthroughs made in the speciation modes and molecular mechanism of reproductive isolation. We also pointed out some limitations in current studies. Finally, we discuss the potential opportunities and new breakthroughs that can be made in the future studies of animal speciation.

Key words: species, speciation, interspecific hybridization, reproductive isolation, genomes