A brief history of speciation research at the Station Biologique de Roscoff (1872-2022)
Résumé
The Station Biologique de Roscoff is celebrating its 150th anniversary. The occasion to take a break, to look back on the research done so far. Here we are interested in the origin of species. How does reproductive isolation evolve? How do barrier mechanisms appear and develop, and, accumulating, give rise to new species? These questions have been addressed in various ways at the Station biologique de Roscoff, in the framework of research projects that have as their most recent common ancestor the pioneering work of Georges Teissier in population genetics. Leaning on the soft or rocky substrates of the Roscoff coasts, with their feet in the water, Teissier and his colleagues and students gave a decisive impulse to French evolutionary biology. The mystery of the origin of species has since been the subject of various programs focused mainly on the evolution of marine algae and invertebrates. Some of these programs have been interested in describing the diversity and spatial distribution of species, focusing in particular on hybridization and gene flow at different spatial scales, across the foreshore, along the coasts, or between hydrothermal vents on an ocean scale. Another part of this work has sought to identify the mechanisms of reproductive isolation between species and their genetic basis. We retrace here the progress of these programs carried out at the station biologique de Roscoff since its foundation.