ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

bateson–dobzhansky–muller model

Hello there! Let me explain the Bateson-Dobzhansky-Muller model in a way that a 5-year-old can understand.

Imagine you have three friends, let's call them Billy, Daisy, and Max. They all have a toy and they want to trade with each other. But the problem is, their toys are all different and they don't fit together.

Now, let's say Billy's toy is a red car, and Daisy's toy is a yellow elephant, while Max's toy is a blue airplane. They all want to trade with each other, but because their toys are different, they can't fit together.

This is kind of like what happens when two species of plants or animals try to mate with each other, but their genes are incompatible. This means that they cannot produce healthy offspring that can survive and reproduce.

The Bateson-Dobzhansky-Muller model explains why this happens. It says that over time, as two populations of plants or animals become genetically different from each other, they can develop genetic incompatibilities that prevent them from producing healthy offspring.

Just like how Billy, Daisy, and Max's toys couldn't fit together because they were different, the genes of two different species of plants or animals can't fit together if they've evolved in different ways.

So, in short, the Bateson-Dobzhansky-Muller model is a way of understanding why two species of plants or animals can't reproduce and have healthy offspring when they've developed genetic differences over time.