Repeated evolution and the coupling of barriers to gene exchange in Littorina snails
Speciation is a key evolutionary process generating biodiversity that we do not fully understand. Ecotype pairs evolving in parallel across environmental gradients represent an opportunity to study how the environment contributes to speciation. Here, I will present some of my work on the genomic bases of repeated ecotype evolution in Littorina snails. I will show that strong reproductive isolation can evolve from the coupling of multiple chromosomal inversions, and discuss the potential origins of this coupling. Then, I will provide a first comparative genomic insight on repeated evolution of ecotypes across different Littorina species. To finish, I will present my CNRS project using a comparative approach to study the dynamics of speciation during range expansions.
