Richard J. Abbott
Matings between different species (interspecific hybridization) provide increased genetic variation and new gene combinations that could be a potent force in adaptive evolution and the production of new species. As Abbott explains in his Perspective, evidence for this has so far been scant, but is now provided by new work on interspecific hybridization in sunflowers (Rieseberg et al.).
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The author is at the School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9TH, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Related articles in Science:
Major Ecological Transitions in Wild Sunflowers Facilitated by Hybridization
Loren H. Rieseberg, Olivier Raymond, David M. Rosenthal, Zhao Lai, Kevin Livingstone, Takuya Nakazato, Jennifer L. Durphy, Andrea E. Schwarzbach, Lisa A. Donovan, and Christian Lexer
Science 2003 301: 1211-1216. (in Research Articles) [Abstract] [Full Text]
