ON THE THEORY OF SPECIATION INDUCED BY TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENTS

Lev R. Ginzburg ¹, Paul M. Bingham ², and Sinjae Yoo ¹

¹ Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York, Stoney Brook, New York 11794
² Department of Biochemistry, State University of New York, Stoney Brook, New York 11794

A simple methematical model describes the invasion of panmictic, sexually reproducing populations by a newly introduced transposon. The model places important constraints on the properties that transposons must have to successfully invade a population and describes the kinetics with which such an invasion will occur. Invasibility conditions serve as a basis for new, detailed scenarios whereby transposon-mediated depression in fitness produces reproductive isolation of populations. These scenarios, in turn, lead to several speculations concerning the role of transposons in evolution.

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