Hybrid Incompatibilities, Local Adaptation, and the Genomic Distribution of Natural Introgression between Species

Under allopatric speciation, geographic barriers eliminate gene flow between eventual species at all loci in the genome simultaneously. There is increasing evidence, however, that speciation can be complex, with some loci experiencing gene flow during speciation or during bouts of secondary contact. In taxa with heteromorphic sex chromosomes—birds, butterflies, mammals, and Drosophila—the X (or Z) chromosome generally shows reduced levels of gene flow compared to autosomes. To investigate why, we develop population genetic models of secondary contact and gene flow at a neutral locus that is genetically linked to selected loci involved in hybrid incompatibilities and/or local adaptation. Using models that assume weak migration and strong selection, we compare gene flow at X-linked versus autosomal neutral loci as a function of linkage, dominance, sex-specific selection, and sex-specific recombination. For most cases, gene flow at neutral loci on the X is reduced relative to autosomes, as the greater efficacy of hemizygous selection in XY hybrids reduces the opportunity for neutral migrant alleles to escape their genetically linked, locally disfavored alleles via recombination. There are some circumstances, however, involving sex-limited selection and sex-limited recombination that allow neutral loci on the X to introgress more readily than those on autosomes.