摘要
A growing number of genes responsible for reproductive incompatibilities between species （barrier loci） exhibit the signals of positive selection. However, the possibility that genes experiencing positive selection diverge early in speciation and commonly cause reproductive incompatibilities has not been systematically investigated on a genome-wide scale. Here, I outline a research program for studying the genetic basis of speciation in broadcast spawning marine invertebrates that uses a priori genome-wide information on a large, unbiased sample of genes tested for positive selection. A targeted sequence capture approach is proposed that scores single-nucleotide polymorphisms （SNPs） in widely separated species populations at an early stage of allopatric divergence. The targeted capture of both coding and non-coding sequences enables SNPs to be characterized at known locations across the genome and at genes with known selective or neutral histories. The neutral coding and non-coding SNPs provide robust background distributions for identifying Fsm-outliers within genes that can, in principle, identify specific mutations experiencing diversifying selection. If natural hybridization occurs between species, the neutral coding and noncoding SNPs can provide a neutral admixture model for genomic clines analyses aimed at finding genes exhibiting strong blocks to introgression. Strongylocentrotid sea urchins are used as a model system to outline the approach but it can be used for any group that has a complete reference genome available.
基金
Acknowledgments I would like to thank Nicolas Bierne for the opportunity of contributing to the Special Column： Population Genomics in the Sea. Helpful comments on the manuscript were provided by Nicolas Bierne and two anonymous reviewers.Partial funding for the work described on strongylocentrotid sea urchins was provided by the Natinal Science Foundation （DEB-1011061 ）.
