smallmouth bass

Schematic illustrating the hybridization between smallmouth and largemouth bass in the invaded Olifants River system. Viable F1 hybrids are produced when smallmouth bass provide the sperm and largemouth bass provide the eggs. These F1 hybrids, in turn, can mate, with either parental species, resulting in a backcross – a hybrid that morphologically (size, shape, and structure of an organism or one of its parts) looks like the parent species, but who’s DNA has “pieces” of the other species incorporated. Alternatively, two F1 hybrids could reproduce, resulting in F2 hybrids.