scholarly journals Antagonistic coevolution between quantitative and Mendelian traits

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1827) ◽  
pp. 20152926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masato Yamamichi ◽  
Stephen P. Ellner
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Chaotic Dynamics ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
State Dependence ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Ecological Traits ◽  
Complete Dominance ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Antagonistic Coevolution ◽  
Phenotypic Distance

Coevolution is relentlessly creating and maintaining biodiversity and therefore has been a central topic in evolutionary biology. Previous theoretical studies have mostly considered coevolution between genetically symmetric traits (i.e. coevolution between two continuous quantitative traits or two discrete Mendelian traits). However, recent empirical evidence indicates that coevolution can occur between genetically asymmetric traits (e.g. between quantitative and Mendelian traits). We examine consequences of antagonistic coevolution mediated by a quantitative predator trait and a Mendelian prey trait, such that predation is more intense with decreased phenotypic distance between their traits (phenotype matching). This antagonistic coevolution produces a complex pattern of bifurcations with bistability (initial state dependence) in a two-dimensional model for trait coevolution. Furthermore, with eco-evolutionary dynamics (so that the trait evolution affects predator–prey population dynamics), we find that coevolution can cause rich dynamics including anti-phase cycles, in-phase cycles, chaotic dynamics and deterministic predator extinction. Predator extinction is more likely to occur when the prey trait exhibits complete dominance rather than semidominance and when the predator trait evolves very rapidly. Our study illustrates how recognizing the genetic architectures of interacting ecological traits can be essential for understanding the population and evolutionary dynamics of coevolving species.

scholarly journals Eco-evolutionary dynamics in metacommunities: ecological inheritance, helping within- and harming between-species

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Mullon ◽  
Laurent Lehmann
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Demographic Stochasticity ◽  
Selection Gradient ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Ecological Inheritance

AbstractUnderstanding selection on intra- and inter-specific interactions that take place in dispersal-limited communities is a challenge for ecology and evolutionary biology. The problem is that local demographic stochasticity generates eco-evolutionary dynamics that are generally too complicated to make tractable analytical investigations. Here, we circumvent this problem by approximating the selection gradient on a quantitative trait that influences local community dynamics, assuming that such dynamics are deterministic with a stable fixed point. We nonetheless incorporate unavoidable kin selection effects arising from demographic stochasticity. Our approximation reveals that selection depends on how an individual expressing a trait-change influences: (1) its own fitness and the fitness of its current relatives; and (2) the fitness of its downstream relatives through modifications of local ecological conditions (i.e., through ecological inheritance). Mathematically, the effects of ecological inheritance on selection are captured by dispersal-limited versions of press-perturbations of community ecology. We use our approximation to investigate the evolution of helping within- and harming between-species when these behaviours influence demography. We find that individually costly helping evolves more readily when intra-specific competition is for material resources rather than for space because in this case, the costs of kin competition are paid by downstream relatives. Similarly, individually costly harming between species evolves when it alleviates downstream relatives from inter-specific competition. Beyond these examples, our approximation can help better understand the influence of ecological inheritance on a variety of eco-evolutionary dynamics in metacommunities, from consumer-resource and predator-prey coevolution to selection on mating systems with demographic feedbacks.

scholarly journals Evolution of correlated complexity in the radically different courtship signals of birds-of-paradise

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell A. Ligon ◽  
Christopher D. Diaz ◽  
Janelle L. Morano ◽  
Jolyon Troscianko ◽  
Martin Stevens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Functional Integration ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
Evolutionary Innovation ◽  
Birds Of Paradise ◽  
Analytical Approaches

Ornaments used in courtship often vary wildly among species, reflecting the evolutionary interplay between mate preference functions and the constraints imposed by natural selection. Consequently, understanding the evolutionary dynamics responsible for ornament diversification has been a longstanding challenge in evolutionary biology. However, comparing radically different ornaments across species, as well as different classes of ornaments within species, is a profound challenge to understanding diversification of sexual signals. Using novel methods and a unique natural history dataset, we explore evolutionary patterns of ornament evolution in a group - the birds-of-paradise - exhibiting dramatic phenotypic diversification widely assumed to be driven by sexual selection. Rather than the tradeoff between ornament types originally envisioned by Darwin and Wallace, we found positive correlations among cross-modal (visual/acoustic) signals indicating functional integration of ornamental traits into a composite unit - the courtship phenotype. Furthermore, given the broad theoretical and empirical support for the idea that systemic robustness - functional overlap and interdependency - promotes evolutionary innovation, we posit that birds-of-paradise have radiated extensively through ornamental phenotype space as a consequence of the robustness in the courtship phenotype that we document at a phylogenetic scale. We suggest that the degree of robustness in courtship phenotypes among taxa can provide new insights into the relative influence of sexual and natural selection on phenotypic radiations.Author SummaryAnimals frequently vary widely in ornamentation, even among closely related species. Understanding the patterns that underlie this variation is a significant challenge, requiring comparisons among drastically different traits - like comparing apples to oranges. Here, we use novel analytical approaches to quantify variation in ornamental diversity and richness across the wildly divergent birds-of-paradise, a textbook example of how sexual selection can profoundly shape organismal phenotypes. We find that color and acoustic complexity, along with behavior and acoustic complexity, are positively correlated across evolutionary time-scales. Positive covariation among ornament classes suggests that selection is acting on correlated suites of traits - a composite courtship phenotype - and that this integration may be partially responsible for the extreme variation we see in birds-of-paradise.

scholarly journals Phenotype bias determines how RNA structures occupy the morphospace of all possible shapes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamaludin Dingle ◽  
Fatme Ghaddar ◽  
Petr Šulc ◽  
Ard A. Louis
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Rna Secondary Structure ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Rna Structures ◽  
Non Coding Rna ◽  
Ultimate Cause ◽  
Uniform Random Sampling ◽  
Bias Versus

The relative prominence of developmental bias versus natural selection is a long standing controversy in evolutionary biology. Here we demonstrate quantitatively that developmental bias is the primary explanation for the occupation of the morphospace of RNA secondary structure (SS) shapes. By using the RNAshapes method to define coarse-grained SS classes, we can directly measure the frequencies that non-coding RNA SS shapes appear in nature. Our main findings are, firstly, that only the most frequent structures appear in nature: The vast majority of possible structures in the morphospace have not yet been explored. Secondly, and perhaps more surprisingly, these frequencies are accurately predicted by the likelihood that structures appear upon uniform random sampling of sequences. The ultimate cause of these patterns is not natural selection, but rather strong phenotype bias in the RNA genotype-phenotype (GP) map, a type of developmental bias that tightly constrains evolutionary dynamics to only act within a reduced subset of structures which are easy to “find”.

Predator Ecology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. DeLong
Keyword(s):  
Food Webs ◽  
Functional Response ◽  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Functional Responses ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Top Predators ◽  
Integrative Science

Predator-prey interactions form an essential part of ecological communities, determining the flow of energy from autotrophs to top predators. The rate of predation is a key regulator of that energy flow, and that rate is determined by the functional response. Functional responses themselves are emergent ecological phenomena – they reflect morphology, behavior, and physiology of both predator and prey and are both outcomes of evolution and the source of additional evolution. The functional response is thus a concept that connects many aspects of biology from behavioral ecology to eco-evolutionary dynamics to food webs, and as a result, the functional response is the key to an integrative science of predatory ecology. In this book, I provide a synthesis of research on functional responses, starting with the basics. I then break the functional response down into foraging components and connect these to the traits and behaviors that connect species in food webs. I conclude that contrary to appearances, we know very little about functional responses, and additional work is necessary for us to understand how environmental change and management will impact ecological systems

scholarly journals PRDM9 Diversity at Fine Geographical Scale Reveals Contrasting Evolutionary Patterns and Functional Constraints in Natural Populations of House Mice

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1686-1700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Covadonga Vara ◽  
Laia Capilla ◽  
Luca Ferretti ◽  
Alice Ledda ◽  
Rosa A Sánchez-Guillén ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
House Mice ◽  
Functional Constraints ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
Data Set

Abstract One of the major challenges in evolutionary biology is the identification of the genetic basis of postzygotic reproductive isolation. Given its pivotal role in this process, here we explore the drivers that may account for the evolutionary dynamics of the PRDM9 gene between continental and island systems of chromosomal variation in house mice. Using a data set of nearly 400 wild-caught mice of Robertsonian systems, we identify the extent of PRDM9 diversity in natural house mouse populations, determine the phylogeography of PRDM9 at a local and global scale based on a new measure of pairwise genetic divergence, and analyze selective constraints. We find 57 newly described PRDM9 variants, this diversity being especially high on Madeira Island, a result that is contrary to the expectations of reduced variation for island populations. Our analysis suggest that the PRDM9 allelic variability observed in Madeira mice might be influenced by the presence of distinct chromosomal fusions resulting from a complex pattern of introgression or multiple colonization events onto the island. Importantly, we detect a significant reduction in the proportion of PRDM9 heterozygotes in Robertsonian mice, which showed a high degree of similarity in the amino acids responsible for protein–DNA binding. Our results suggest that despite the rapid evolution of PRDM9 and the variability detected in natural populations, functional constraints could facilitate the accumulation of allelic combinations that maintain recombination hotspot symmetry. We anticipate that our study will provide the basis for examining the role of different PRDM9 genetic backgrounds in reproductive isolation in natural populations.

scholarly journals Trophic cascades alter eco-evolutionary dynamics and body size evolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1938) ◽  
pp. 20200526
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Luhring ◽  
John P. DeLong
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass ◽  
Trophic Level ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Trophic Cascades ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Chain Model ◽  
Top Predator ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Top Predators ◽  
Time Changes

Trait evolution in predator–prey systems can feed back to the dynamics of interacting species as well as cascade to impact the dynamics of indirectly linked species (eco-evolutionary trophic cascades; EETCs). A key mediator of trophic cascades is body mass, as it both strongly influences and evolves in response to predator–prey interactions. Here, we use Gillespie eco-evolutionary models to explore EETCs resulting from top predator loss and mediated by body mass evolution. Our four-trophic-level food chain model uses allometric scaling to link body mass to different functions (ecological pleiotropy) and is realistically parameterized from the FORAGE database to mimic the parameter space of a typical freshwater system. To track real-time changes in selective pressures, we also calculated fitness gradients for each trophic level. As predicted, top predator loss generated alternating shifts in abundance across trophic levels, and, depending on the nature and strength in changes to fitness gradients, also altered trajectories of body mass evolution. Although more distantly linked, changes in the abundance of top predators still affected the eco-evolutionary dynamics of the basal producers, in part because of their relatively short generation times. Overall, our results suggest that impacts on top predators can set off transient EETCs with the potential for widespread indirect impacts on food webs.

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