I'm wondering how homologous recombination and mutations can affect how speciation can occur from one species (so that 2 will be created).
I'm doing research and I found that different mutations and genetic combinations occur in two geographically separated populations which can lead to speciation.
I know recombination can result in different genetic combinations, but how does that factor into a phylogenetic tree? Wouldn't recombination technically play no role in leading to evolution?
My (sort of) guess is that say recombination creates a population with a lot of AA genes and the other population, say by chance (genetic drift), has a population with a lot of aa genes.
We know A and a differ by perhaps a few SNPs, so on average, the two populations would become slightly different from one another due to genetic drift and geographic separation.
Do I have the right idea here? I'm not 100% sure how recombination during prophase I would affect recombination. Hoping someone can clarify this for me or provide some new insights.