Hybridization and its Impact on Species Extinction

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Hybridization is commonly defined as the interbreeding of genetically differentiated populations, where the gene flow between the two species has been reestablished. This process is more likely to happen in recently diverged populations that have a secondary contact, in which the isolation barrier has been removed. Hybridization can lead to a variety of evolutionary outcomes, depending on the fitness of the hybrids relative to the parental forms. Some of them will be beneficial, such as the effects of maintaining or increasing diversity through stable hybrid zones, the rescue of small inbred populations, the origin and transfer of adaptations, the reinforcement of reproductive isolation, and the formation of new hybrid lineages (Todesco, 2016). In the other hand, hybridization can also reduce diversity through the breakdown of reproductive barriers, leading to the merger of previously distinctive evolutionary lineages, and the extinction of populations or species.
There are two main mechanisms by which hybridization can lead to species extinction. Genetic swamping and demographic swamping. The first one occurs when the hybrids replace one or both of the parental lineages, leading to the …show more content…

delicatissima in order to save and preserve the species. Of vital importance, it is also to take into consideration the fact I. iguana outcompetes I. delicatissima when in the same location. Iguana iguana males are more powerful than I. delicatissima ones. Therefore, they are able to displace them and to reproduce with I. delicatissima females (Vuillaume B, 2015). In this situation, the population will quickly lose its specificity through admixture. Hence, the need for a proper program where the combination of morphological and genetic information is applied in order to identify and remove the hybrids and the common iguana from the places where I. delicatissima is

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