The role of homoploid hybridization in evolution: a century of studies synthesizing genetics and ecology

While homoploid hybridization was viewed as maladaptive by zoologists, the possibility that it might play a creative role in evolution was explored and debated by botanists during the evolutionary synthesis. Owing to his synthetic work on the ecological and genetic factors influencing the occurrence and effects of hybridization, G. Ledyard Stebbins' contributions to this debate were particularly influential. We revisit Stebbins' views on the frequency of hybridization, the evolution of hybrid sterility, and the evolutionary importance of transgressive segregation, introgression, and homoploid hybrid speciation in the context of contemporary evidence. Floristic surveys indicate that ∼10% of plant species hybridize, suggesting that natural hybridization is not as ubiquitous as Stebbins argued. There is stronger support for his contention that chromosomal sterility is of greater importance in plants than in animals and that selection drives the evolution of hybrid sterility. Stebbins' assertions concerning the frequent occurrence of transgressive segregation and introgressive hybridization have been confirmed by contemporary work, but few studies directly link these phenomena to adaptive evolution or speciation. Stebbins proposed a mechanism by which chromosomal rearrangements partially isolate hybrid lineages and parental species, which spurred the development of the recombinational model of homoploid speciation. While this model has been confirmed empirically, the establishment of reproductively independent hybrid lineages is typically associated with the development of both intrinsic and extrinsic reproductive barriers. We conclude by reflecting on outcomes of hybridization not considered by Stebbins and on possible future research that may extend our understanding of the evolutionary role of hybridization beyond Stebbins' legacy.