Chromosome evolution and speciation: Revisiting Bush et al. (1977)

Abstract

Whether and how chromosome change can drive speciation has long attracted the interest of evolutionary biologists.  In a seminal paper, Bush et al. (1977) demonstrated wide variation in rates of macroscopic chromosome change across vertebrates and a positive correlation with rates of speciation at genus-level, and then considered possible causal processes.  We revisit the key findings of this paper, highlighting how rapidly advancing knowledge of genome organisation and function shed new light on this long standing question.  The central findings of Bush et al. (1977) have endured.  There is now great opportunity to apply new genome technologies to understand the interaction of genome change and function in the classic systems of chromosomal speciation discovered through classical cytogenetics.