To cite this version:Ambre Ribardière, Elsa Pabion, Jérôme Coudret, Claire Daguin-Thiébaut, Céline Houbin, et al.. Sexual isolation with and without ecological isolation in marine isopods Jaera albifrons and J. praehirsuta.
AbstractSexual barriers associated with mate choice are often found to be associated with some level of ecological isolation between species. The independence and relative strength of sexual isolation are thus difficult to assess. Here we take advantage of a pair of marine isopod species (Jaera albifrons and J. praehirsuta) that show sexual isolation and coexist in populations where they share 20 the same microhabitat or not (i.e. without or with ecological isolation). We estimated the strength of sexual isolation between J. albifrons and J. praehirsuta using no-choice trials and a multiple-choice experimental population. We found that sexual isolation is strong in both the presence and absence of ecological isolation, but that it is asymmetric and fails to prevent interspecific gene flow entirely.First-generation intrinsic post-zygotic barriers were low, and there was no sexual isolation within J. 25 praehirsuta across habitats. The J. albifrons / J. praehirsuta species pair thus provides an example where the role of sexual isolation as a barrier to gene flow i) does not depend upon current ecological isolation, ii) seems to have evolved independently of local ecological conditions, but iii) is insufficient to complete speciation entirely on its own. platform at Station Biologique de Roscoff and was funded by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (grant ANR-13-JSV7-0001-01 to T.B.). 625 Author contributions Conceptualization and methodology: AR and TB. Field sampling and species identification: AR, EP, JC, CH, SL and TB. Crossing experiments and maintenance of the individuals in the laboratory: AR, EP, JC, CH, SH, and TB. Genotyping and phenotyping: AR, EP, JC, CDT, CH and TB. Analyses and 630 writing: AR, EP, and TB. Supervision, project administration and funding acquisition: TB.