Dynamic of reproductive isolation among endemic bromeliads from Campos Rupestres, Brazil

Abstract

Chapada Diamantina is a complex phytogeographic region with many forest types (eg. Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, Cerrado), and this reflects climatic fluctuations that occurred along the biogeographic history of the region, where the specialization of new environments and the formation of new niches created physical/ecological barriers to gene flow, resulting in the large number of endemic species in the region. Even so, endemic species are often found in sympatry with their congeners, associated with the relatively short period of phylogenetic divergence among species, preventing the dispersion of populations (due to the specialization of both populations to the same ecological niche), or by secondary contact caused by the suppression of the geographic barrier that kept the species in reproductive isolation. However, the dynamics of reproductive traits is very important for the evolution process and maintenance of speciation processes, where populations can rapidly evolve reproductive barriers to prevent the miscegenation of individuals (reinforcement), or crosses between species will occur due to the absence of characteristics that prevent hybridization. However, understanding the dynamics of the reproductive traits is important to understand the colonization process of the species and to understand how the formation of new species occurs in phytogeographically complex regions. Based on this, this work plan aims to describe the reproductive traits of endemic species of Chapada Diamantina, in order to understand how these characteristics allow the isolation of the species, either through the intensification of reproductive barriers (reinforcement) or by the formation of hybrid zones (allele sharing and genetic structuring).