scholarly journals Building behavior does not drive rates of phenotypic evolution in spiders

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (33) ◽  
pp. e2102693118
Author(s):  
Jonas O. Wolff ◽  
Kaja Wierucka ◽  
Gabriele Uhl ◽  
Marie E. Herberstein
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Phenotypic Evolution ◽  
Body Morphology ◽  
Building Behavior

Do animals set the course for the evolution of their lineage when manipulating their environment? This heavily disputed question is empirically unexplored but critical to interpret phenotypic diversity. Here, we tested whether the macroevolutionary rates of body morphology correlate with the use of built artifacts in a megadiverse clade comprising builders and nonbuilders—spiders. By separating the inferred building-dependent rates from background effects, we found that variation in the evolution of morphology is poorly explained by artifact use. Thus natural selection acting directly on body morphology rather than indirectly via construction behavior is the dominant driver of phenotypic diversity.

scholarly journals Coevolution is linked with phenotypic diversification but not speciation in avian brood parasites

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1821) ◽  
pp. 20152056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iliana Medina ◽  
Naomi E. Langmore
Keyword(s):  
Egg Size ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Phenotypic Evolution ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Parasitic Species ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Rates Of Evolution ◽  
Phenotypic Diversification

Coevolution is often invoked as an engine of biological diversity. Avian brood parasites and their hosts provide one of the best-known examples of coevolution. Brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of other species, selecting for host defences and reciprocal counteradaptations in parasites. In theory, this arms race should promote increased rates of speciation and phenotypic evolution. Here, we use recently developed methods to test whether the three largest avian brood parasitic lineages show changes in rates of phenotypic diversity and speciation relative to non-parasitic lineages. Our results challenge the accepted paradigm, and show that there is little consistent evidence that lineages of brood parasites have higher speciation or extinction rates than non-parasitic species. However, we provide the first evidence that the evolution of brood parasitic behaviour may affect rates of evolution in morphological traits associated with parasitism. Specifically, egg size and the colour and pattern of plumage have evolved up to nine times faster in parasitic than in non-parasitic cuckoos. Moreover, cuckoo clades of parasitic species that are sympatric (and share similar host genera) exhibit higher rates of phenotypic evolution. This supports the idea that competition for hosts may be linked to the high phenotypic diversity found in parasitic cuckoos.

Darwin’s legacy II: why biology is not physics, or why it has taken a century to see the dependence of genes on the environment

Genome ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rama S. Singh
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Paradigm Change ◽  
Phenotypic Evolution ◽  
Direct Role ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Genes And Environment ◽  
Teleological Interpretation

Genes and environment make the organism. Darwin stood firm in his denial of any direct role of environment in the modification of heredity. His theory of evolution heralded two debates: one about the importance and adequacy of natural selection as the main mechanism of evolution, and the other about the role of genes versus environment in the modification of phenotype and evolution. Here, I provide an overview of the second debate and show that the reasons for the gene versus environment battle were twofold: first, there was confusion about the role of environment in modifying the inheritance of a trait versus the evolution of that trait, and second, there was misunderstanding about the meaning of environment and its interaction with genes in the production of phenotypes. It took nearly a century to see that environment does not directly affect the inheritance of a phenotype (i.e., its heredity), but it is nevertheless the primary mover of phenotypic evolution. Effects of genes and environment are not separate but interdependent. One cannot separate the effect of genes from that of environment, or nature from nurture. To answer the question posed in the title, it is partly because the 20th century has been a century of unending progress in genetics. But also because unlike physics, biology is not colorblind; progress in biology has often been delayed beyond the Kuhnian paradigm change due to built-in interest in negating the influence of environment. Those who are against evolution, of course, cannot be expected to understand the role of environment in evolution. Those for it, many biologists included, believing in the supremacy of genes empowers them by giving adaptation a solely gene-directed (self-driven) “teleological” interpretation.

scholarly journals Within-Host Phenotypic Evolution and the Population-Level Control of Chronic Viral Infections by Treatment and Prophylaxis

Mathematics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1500
Author(s):  
Dmitry Gromov ◽  
Ethan O. Romero-Severson
Keyword(s):  
Viral Infections ◽  
Sequence Data ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Mathematical Framework ◽  
Phenotypic Evolution ◽  
Level Control ◽  
Chronic Viral Infections ◽  
Prophylactic Measures

Chronic viral infections can persist for decades spanning thousands of viral generations, leading to a highly diverse population of viruses with its own complex evolutionary history. We propose an expandable mathematical framework for understanding how the emergence of genetic and phenotypic diversity affects the population-level control of those infections by both non-curative treatment and chemo-prophylactic measures. Our frameworks allows both neutral and phenotypic evolution, and we consider the specific evolution of contagiousness, resistance to therapy, and efficacy of prophylaxis. We compute both the controlled and uncontrolled, population-level basic reproduction number accounting for the within-host evolutionary process where new phenotypes emerge and are lost in infected persons, which we also extend to include both treatment and prophylactic control efforts. We used these results to discuss the conditions under which the relative efficacy of prophylactic versus therapeutic methods of control are superior. Finally, we give expressions for the endemic equilibrium of these models for certain constrained versions of the within-host evolutionary model providing a potential method for estimating within-host evolutionary parameters from population-level genetic sequence data.

A Conceptual Roadmap to Homology

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günter P. Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Morphological Variation ◽  
Research Program ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Evolutionary Explanation ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Developmental Evolution ◽  
Homologous Genes ◽  
Character Identity ◽  
The Difference

This chapter proposes a conceptual roadmap to homology, with the goal of supporting the research program of developmental evolution that seeks to explain the patterns of phenotypic diversity. It offers a mechanistic developmental and evolutionary explanation of the evolution of body plans and the origin of character identities. It also examines the difference between the origin of homologs (that is, novelties) and their modification by natural selection (that is, adaptation); the limits of homology, focusing on the lack of individuality of body parts; homologous genes; characters and character states; variational modalities; character identity and repeated body parts; and character swarms. Finally, it considers alternative conceptualizations of homology, conceptual liberalism, and how to sort patterns of morphological variation.

scholarly journals Testing Natural Selection vs. Genetic Drift in Phenotypic Evolution Using Quantitative Trait Locus Data

Genetics ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 149 (4) ◽  
pp. 2099-2104 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Allen Orr
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Trait Locus ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Genetic Drift ◽  
Quantitative Trait ◽  
Null Hypothesis ◽  
Sign Test ◽  
Phenotypic Evolution ◽  
Phenotypic Difference ◽  
Quantitative Trait Locus Data ◽  
Trait Locus

Abstract Evolutionary biologists have long sought a way to determine whether a phenotypic difference between two taxa was caused by natural selection or random genetic drift. Here I argue that data from quantitative trait locus (QTL) analyses can be used to test the null hypothesis of neutral phenotypic evolution. I propose a sign test that compares the observed number of plus and minus alleles in the “high line” with that expected under neutrality, conditioning on the known phenotypic difference between the taxa. Rejection of the null hypothesis implies a role for directional natural selection. This test is applicable to any character in any organism in which QTL analysis can be performed.

Ancient Genomics of Modern Humans: The First Decade

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 381-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pontus Skoglund ◽  
Iain Mathieson
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Human Genomes ◽  
African Populations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Out Of Africa ◽  
Genomic Basis

The first decade of ancient genomics has revolutionized the study of human prehistory and evolution. We review new insights based on prehistoric modern human genomes, including greatly increased resolution of the timing and structure of the out-of-Africa expansion, the diversification of present-day non-African populations, and the earliest expansions of those populations into Eurasia and America. Prehistoric genomes now document population transformations on every inhabited continent—in particular the effect of agricultural expansions in Africa, Europe, and Oceania—and record a history of natural selection that shapes present-day phenotypic diversity. Despite these advances, much remains unknown, in particular about the genomic histories of Asia (the most populous continent) and Africa (the continent that contains the most genetic diversity). Ancient genomes from these and other regions, integrated with a growing understanding of the genomic basis of human phenotypic diversity, will be in focus during the next decade of research in the field.

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