Search

A novel type of barrier that result from the reduced success of immigrants upon reaching foreign habitats that are ecologically divergent from their native habitat is presented. It is highlighted that the 'immigrant inviability' barrier is biologically and chronologically distinct from the widely recognized 'habitat isolation' barrier.

A metapopulation model is used to examine whether antagonistic pleiotropy could help maintain polymorphism involving common deleterious alleles in the phytopathogenic fungus Microbotryum violeceum. A competitive advantage for strains carrying the sex-linked deleterious alleles is not found to facilitate their maintenance as competitive situations were too rare, while in contrast, higher spore production did facilitate the maintenance of the deleterious alleles at low intra-tetrad mating rates and with a large advantage for spore production.

The patterns of dispersal and mating of the anther smut Microbotryum violaceum, a model species in genetics and evolutionary biology is explored. Low genetic diversity, high levels of self-fertilisation and strong interpopulation differentiation in a natural M.violaceum metapopulation on S, latifolia have been found.