scholarly journals Heterogeneous selection on exploration behavior within and among West European populations of a passerine bird

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (28) ◽  
pp. e2024994118
Author(s):  
Alexia Mouchet ◽  
Ella F. Cole ◽  
Erik Matthysen ◽  
Marion Nicolaus ◽  
John L. Quinn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Variation ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Passerine Bird ◽  
Box Plots ◽  
Exploration Behavior ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Animal Personalities ◽  
European Populations ◽  
West European

Heterogeneous selection is often proposed as a key mechanism maintaining repeatable behavioral variation (“animal personality”) in wild populations. Previous studies largely focused on temporal variation in selection within single populations. The relative importance of spatial versus temporal variation remains unexplored, despite these processes having distinct effects on local adaptation. Using data from >3,500 great tits (Parus major) and 35 nest box plots situated within five West-European populations monitored over 4 to 18 y, we show that selection on exploration behavior varies primarily spatially, across populations, and study plots within populations. Exploration was, simultaneously, selectively neutral in the average population and year. These findings imply that spatial variation in selection may represent a primary mechanism maintaining animal personalities, likely promoting the evolution of local adaptation, phenotype-dependent dispersal, and nonrandom settlement. Selection also varied within populations among years, which may counteract local adaptation. Our study underlines the importance of combining multiple spatiotemporal scales in the study of behavioral adaptation.

scholarly journals Drd4 gene polymorphisms are associated with personality variation in a passerine bird

2007 ◽  
Vol 274 (1619) ◽  
pp. 1685-1691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew E Fidler ◽  
Kees van Oers ◽  
Piet J Drent ◽  
Sylvia Kuhn ◽  
Jakob C Mueller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transcription Initiation ◽  
Gene Polymorphisms ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Passerine Bird ◽  
Initiation Site ◽  
Novelty Seeking ◽  
Coding Region ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Single Nucleotide ◽  
Genetic Epistasis

Polymorphisms in several neurotransmitter-associated genes have been associated with variation in human personality traits. Among the more promising of such associations is that between the human dopamine receptor D4 gene ( Drd4 ) variants and novelty-seeking behaviour. However, genetic epistasis, genotype–environment interactions and confounding environmental factors all act to obscure genotype–personality relationships. Such problems can be addressed by measuring personality under standardized conditions and by selection experiments, with both approaches only feasible with non-human animals. Looking for similar Drd4 genotype–personality associations in a free-living bird, the great tit ( Parus major ), we detected 73 polymorphisms (66 SNPs, 7 indels) in the P. major Drd4 orthologue. Two of the P. major Drd4 gene polymorphisms were investigated for evidence of association with novelty-seeking behaviour: a coding region synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP830) and a 15 bp indel (ID15) located 5′ to the putative transcription initiation site. Frequencies of the three Drd4 SNP830 genotypes, but not the ID15 genotypes, differed significantly between two P. major lines selected over four generations for divergent levels of ‘early exploratory behaviour’ (EEB). Strong corroborating evidence for the significance of this finding comes from the analysis of free-living, unselected birds where we found a significant association between SNP830 genotypes and differing mean EEB levels. These findings suggest that an association between Drd4 gene polymorphisms and animal personality variation predates the divergence of the avian and mammalian lineages. Furthermore, this work heralds the possibility of following microevolutionary changes in frequencies of behaviourally relevant Drd4 polymorphisms within populations where natural selection acts differentially on different personality types.

scholarly journals Trait dimensionality explains widespread variation in local adaptation

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1802) ◽  
pp. 20141570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ailene MacPherson ◽  
Paul A. Hohenlohe ◽  
Scott L. Nuismer
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Strong Correlation ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Reciprocal Transplant ◽  
Population Growth Rates ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

All species are locked in a continual struggle to adapt to local ecological conditions. In cases where species fail to locally adapt, they face reduced population growth rates, or even local extinction. Traditional explanations for limited local adaptation focus on maladaptive gene flow or homogeneous environmental conditions. These classical explanations have, however, failed to explain variation in the magnitude of local adaptation observed across taxa. Here we show that variable levels of local adaptation are better explained by trait dimensionality. First, we develop and analyse mathematical models that predict levels of local adaptation will increase with the number of traits experiencing spatially variable selection. Next, we test this prediction by estimating the relationship between dimensionality and local adaptation using data from 35 published reciprocal transplant studies. This analysis reveals a strong correlation between dimensionality and degree of local adaptation, and thus provides empirical support for the predictions of our model.

scholarly journals Chromosomal Thermal Index: a comprehensive way to integrate the thermal adaptation of Drosophila subobscura whole karyotype

Genome ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conxita Arenas ◽  
Goran Zivanovic ◽  
Francesc Mestres
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Thermal Adaptation ◽  
Chromosomal Polymorphism ◽  
Thermal Index ◽  
Homologous Chromosomes ◽  
Cold Adapted ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Over Time ◽  
European Populations

Drosophila has demonstrated to be an excellent model to study the adaptation of organisms to global warming, with inversion chromosomal polymorphism having a key role in this adaptation. Here, we introduce a new index (Chromosomal Thermal Index or CTI) to quantify the thermal adaptation of a population according to its composition of “warm” and “cold” adapted inversions. This index is intuitive, has good statistical properties, and can be used to hypothesis on the effect of global warming on natural populations. We show the usefulness of CTI using data from European populations of D. subobscura, sampled in different years. Out of 15 comparisons over time, nine showed significant increase of CTI, in accordance with global warming expectations. Although large regions of the genome outside inversions contain thermal adaptation genes, our results show that the total amount of warm or cold inversions in populations seems to be directly involved in thermal adaptation, whereas the interactions between the inversions content of homologous and non-homologous chromosomes are not relevant.

scholarly journals Experimental evidence for adaptive personalities in a wild passerine bird

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1749) ◽  
pp. 4885-4892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Nicolaus ◽  
Joost M. Tinbergen ◽  
Karen M. Bouwman ◽  
Stephanie P. M. Michler ◽  
Richard Ubels ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Survival Probability ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Passerine Bird ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Risky Behaviour ◽  
Environment Effects ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Increase Risk

Individuals of the same species differ consistently in risky actions. Such ‘animal personality’ variation is intriguing because behavioural flexibility is often assumed to be the norm. Recent theory predicts that between-individual differences in propensity to take risks should evolve if individuals differ in future fitness expectations: individuals with high long-term fitness expectations (i.e. that have much to lose) should behave consistently more cautious than individuals with lower expectations. Consequently, any manipulation of future fitness expectations should result in within-individual changes in risky behaviour in the direction predicted by this adaptive theory. We tested this prediction and confirmed experimentally that individuals indeed adjust their ‘exploration behaviour’, a proxy for risk-taking behaviour, to their future fitness expectations. We show for wild great tits ( Parus major ) that individuals with experimentally decreased survival probability become faster explorers (i.e. increase risk-taking behaviour) compared to individuals with increased survival probability. We also show, using quantitative genetics approaches, that non-genetic effects (i.e. permanent environment effects) underpin adaptive personality variation in this species. This study thereby confirms a key prediction of adaptive personality theory based on life-history trade-offs, and implies that selection may indeed favour the evolution of personalities in situations where individuals differ in future fitness expectations.

scholarly journals Inferring local adaptation from QST?FSTcomparisons: neutral genetic and quantitative trait variation in European populations of great snipe

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 1563-1576 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. SÆTHER ◽  
P. FISKE ◽  
J. A. KÅLÅS ◽  
A. KURESOO ◽  
L. LUIGUJÕE ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Quantitative Trait ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
European Populations

scholarly journals Evolution of polygenic traits under global vs local adaptation

Genetics ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 220 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Yeaman
Keyword(s):  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Complex Traits ◽  
Genetic Architecture ◽  
Population Genomics ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Using Data ◽  
And Migration

Abstract Observations about the number, frequency, effect size, and genomic distribution of alleles associated with complex traits must be interpreted in light of evolutionary process. These characteristics, which constitute a trait’s genetic architecture, can dramatically affect evolutionary outcomes in applications from agriculture to medicine, and can provide a window into how evolution works. Here, I review theoretical predictions about the evolution of genetic architecture under spatially homogeneous, global adaptation as compared with spatially heterogeneous, local adaptation. Due to the tension between divergent selection and migration, local adaptation can favor “concentrated” genetic architectures that are enriched for alleles of larger effect, clustered in a smaller number of genomic regions, relative to expectations under global adaptation. However, the evolution of such architectures may be limited by many factors, including the genotypic redundancy of the trait, mutation rate, and temporal variability of environment. I review the circumstances in which predictions differ for global vs local adaptation and discuss where progress can be made in testing hypotheses using data from natural populations and lab experiments. As the field of comparative population genomics expands in scope, differences in architecture among traits and species will provide insights into how evolution works, and such differences must be interpreted in light of which kind of selection has been operating.

scholarly journals Model and Data Concur and Explain the Coexistence of Two Very Distinct Animal Behavioral Types

Biology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Jordi Moya-Laraño ◽  
Rubén Rabaneda-Bueno ◽  
Emily Morrison ◽  
Philip Crowley
Keyword(s):  
Natural Populations ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Female Aggression ◽  
Behavioral Syndromes ◽  
Behavioral Variability ◽  
Behavioral Types ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Genetically Determined ◽  
Animal Personalities

Behaviors may enhance fitness in some situations while being detrimental in others. Linked behaviors (behavioral syndromes) may be central to understanding the maintenance of behavioral variability in natural populations. The spillover hypothesis of premating sexual cannibalism by females explains genetically determined female aggression towards both prey and males: growth to a larger size translates into higher fecundity, but at the risk of insufficient sperm acquisition. Here, we use an individual-based model to determine the ecological scenarios under which this spillover strategy is more likely to evolve over a strategy in which females attack approaching males only once the female has previously secured sperm. We found that a classic spillover strategy could never prevail. However, a more realistic early-spillover strategy, in which females become adults earlier in addition to reaching a larger size, could be maintained in some ecological scenarios and even invade a population of females following the other strategy. We also found under some ecological scenarios that both behavioral types coexist through frequency-dependent selection. Additionally, using data from the spider Lycosa hispanica, we provide strong support for the prediction that the two strategies may coexist in the wild. Our results clarify how animal personalities evolve and are maintained in nature.

scholarly journals Phenotypic Divergence among West European Populations of Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus: The Effects of Migratory and Foraging Behaviours

PLoS ONE ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. e63248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Júlio M. Neto ◽  
Luís Gordinho ◽  
Eduardo J. Belda ◽  
Marcial Marín ◽  
Juan S. Monrós ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Divergence ◽  
Emberiza Schoeniclus ◽  
Reed Bunting ◽  
European Populations ◽  
West European

Mitochondrial DNA relationships among North Palaearctic Eptesicus (Vespertilionidae, Chiroptera) and past hybridization between Common Serotine and Northern Bat

Zootaxa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2262 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
ARTYUSHIN I. V. ◽  
BANNIKOVA A. A. ◽  
LEBEDEV V. S. ◽  
KRUSKOP S. V.
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Gene ◽  
Nuclear Data ◽  
The West ◽  
Molecular Phylogenetic ◽  
Taxonomic Implications ◽  
Kaliningrad Region ◽  
Mtdna Introgression ◽  
First Time ◽  
European Populations ◽  
West European

Interspecific hybridization was proposed as one of the explanations for the lack of differentiation between mtDNA of the morphologically divergent bats Eptesicus serotinus and E. nilssonii. However, only West European populations of these species were examined so far. The cytochrome b mitochondrial gene sequences of E. serotinus originating from Russia were compared with those of other North Palaearctic Eptesicus. Common serotines from the Caucasus, Central and South Russia constitute a separate monophyletic group, distinct from western E. serotinus populations, E. nilssonii, and also from E. isabellinus. Only a common serotine from Kaliningrad region proved to be a member of the West European clade. According to these results one may suppose that most of Russian population of E. serotinus escaped the hybridization event that led to fixation of alien mitochondrial genome in the West European populations. Given that (i) preliminary nuclear data support the distinction between E. serotinus and E. nilssonii and (ii) E. serotinus appears morphologically homogeneous throughout the European part of its range, we consider that this past mtDNA introgression has no direct taxonomic implications. For the first time included in a molecular phylogenetic analysis, E. gobiensis was shown to be a full species, related to E. nilssonii. From our mtDNA phylogenetic tree, the taxonomic validity of the subgenus Amblyotus appears doubtful.

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