Understanding the evolution of local adaptations is a central aim of evolutionary biology and key for the identification of unique populations and lineages of conservation relevance. By combining RAD sequencing and whole‐genome sequencing, we identify genetic signatures of local adaptation in mountain hares ( Lepus timidus ) from isolated and distinctive habitats of its wide distribution: Ireland, the Alps and Fennoscandia. De...

Expression divergence, rather than sequence divergence, has been shown to be important in speciation, particularly in the early stages of divergence of traits involved in reproductive isolation. In the two European subspecies of house mice, Mus musculus musculus and Mus musculus domesticus , earlier studies have demonstrated olfactory‐based assortative mate preference in populations close to their hybrid zone. It has been sugg...

Reinforcement is the process by which prezygotic isolation is strengthened as a response to selection against hybridization. Most empirical support for reinforcement comes from the observation of its possible phenotypic signature: an accentuated degree of prezygotic isolation in the hybrid zone as compared to allopatry. Here, we implemented a novel approach to this question by seeking for the signature of reinforcement at the...

Inferring the history of isolation and gene flow during species differentiation can inform us on the processes underlying their formation. Following their recent expansion in Europe, two subspecies of the house mouse ( Mus musculus domesticus and Mus musculus musculus ) have formed a hybrid zone maintained by hybrid incompatibilities and possibly behavioural reinforcement, offering a good model of incipient speciation. We reco...