Genetics of Behavioural Isolation

Behavioural isolation is the lack of sexual attraction between individuals of two different species. This often is the first isolating barrier to evolve during speciation, and it is of utmost importance for our understanding of how species come into being. Unfortunately, there is not a single report of the cloning, isolation and characterization of any gene(s) for behavioural isolation, thus seriously impeding our understanding of how these barriers evolve. In this review, I list some of the major genetic studies which attempted the genetic dissection of behavioural isolation. I further report the general features which emerge from these studies and also why this particular phenotype, however important, is a difficult choice for normal genetic studies.