Biology acronyms

[psyxwar]

If you prefer the other one (its heaps easier to remember imo)...

Spoiler

Kevin Puts Condoms On For Great Sex

I learnt it as

Spoiler

"Kyle Please Come Over For Gay Sex"

[sparked]

Ah, I see. In this case, the different ploidys are not true isolating barriers. I'd be more inclined to label it as a form of speciation or microevolution.

Polymorphism is literally "many forms" - think black skin colour and white skin colour, or sexual dimorphism where the male of a species differs significantly to the female of that same species.

In the context of your question: If a population of, for example, green beetles splits into two colonies and one colony develops a red colour over time due to a selecting factor, these colonies may not mate even if they can technically produce fertile offspring. This is a form of behavioural isolation resulting from polymorphism.

A practical example of behavioural differentiation: there are preproductive mechanisms that seek to limit breeding between species. A frog mating call is unique to a species of frog so this will attract individuals of the same species to mate.

However this does NOT prevent mating occurring with other species (it certainly makes it unlikely) but it is a preproductive mechanism.

Then there are post productive isolating mechanisms - even if mating did occur between separate frog species... The incompatibility of chromosomes between the parents means the embryo is unviable: either the gametes don't survive or the zygote does not survive OR the offspring are sterile. (animals)

It is is selectively inefficient to waste energy mating if there are no viable offspring, so these factors seek to lower the chances of that happening. Even if mating COULD occur, I.e. horses and donkeys can mate, it wouldn't under natural conditions because of the biological cost

Haha hopefully this wasn't confusing

[alondouek]

Ah, I see. In this case, the different ploidys are not true isolating barriers. I'd be more inclined to label it as a form of speciation or microevolution.

Polymorphism is literally "many forms" - think black skin colour and white skin colour, or sexual dimorphism where the male of a species differs significantly to the female of that same species.

In the context of your question: If a population of, for example, green beetles splits into two colonies and one colony develops a red colour over time due to a selecting factor, these colonies may not mate even if they can technically produce fertile offspring. This is a form of behavioural isolation resulting from polymorphism.

Also, in the interests of me being pedantic:

I.e. horses and donkeys can mate, it wouldn't under natural conditions because of the biological cost

Horses and donkeys do mate with a significant frequency to produce mules. These mules aren't fertile because they have a diploid number of 63 (64 from the horse and 62 from the donkey).

[sparked]

Haha well we have been artificially been breeding mules for thousands of years, but the point is that in the wild, under natural conditions, this wouldn't happen/selection isolation factors aim to discourage this