scholarly journals Balanced polymorphisms and their divergence in a Heliconius butterfly

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Ogilvie ◽  
Steven Van Belleghem ◽  
Mathieu Chouteau ◽  
Ryan Range ◽  
Riccardo Papa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Selective Pressure ◽  
Interspecific Variation ◽  
Color Patterns ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Selection Regime ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Heliconius Butterflies ◽  
Positive Frequency

The evolution of mimicry in similarly defended prey is well described by Müllerian mimicry theory, which predicts the convergence of warning patterns in order to gain the most protection from predators. However, despite this prediction, we can find great diversity of color patterns amongst Müllerian mimics such as Heliconius butterflies in the neotropics. Furthermore, some species have evolved the ability to maintain multiple distinct warning patterns in single populations, a phenomenon known as polymorphic mimicry. The adaptive benefit of these polymorphisms is questionable since variation from the most common warning patterns is expected to be disadvantageous as novel signals are punished by predators naive to them. In this study, we use artificial butterfly models throughout Central and South America to characterize the selective pressures maintaining polymorphic mimicry in Heliconius doris. Our results highlight the complexity of positive frequency-dependent selection, the principal selective pressure driving convergence amongst Müllerian mimics, and its impacts on interspecific variation of mimetic warning colouration. We further show how this selection regime can both limit and facilitate the diversification of mimetic traits.

scholarly journals Balanced polymorphisms and their divergence in a Heliconius butterfly

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Ogilvie ◽  
Steven Van Belleghem ◽  
Mathieu Chouteau ◽  
Ryan Range ◽  
Riccardo Papa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Selective Pressure ◽  
Interspecific Variation ◽  
Color Patterns ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Selection Regime ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Heliconius Butterflies ◽  
Positive Frequency

The evolution of mimicry in similarly defended prey is well described by Müllerian mimicry theory, which predicts the convergence of warning patterns in order to gain the most protection from predators. However, despite this prediction, we can find great diversity of color patterns amongst Müllerian mimics such as Heliconius butterflies in the neotropics. Furthermore, some species have evolved the ability to maintain multiple distinct warning patterns in single populations, a phenomenon known as polymorphic mimicry. The adaptive benefit of these polymorphisms is questionable since variation from the most common warning patterns is expected to be disadvantageous as novel signals are punished by predators naive to them. In this study, we use artificial butterfly models throughout Central and South America to characterize the selective pressures maintaining polymorphic mimicry in Heliconius doris. Our results highlight the complexity of positive frequency-dependent selection, the principal selective pressure driving convergence amongst Müllerian mimics, and its impacts on interspecific variation of mimetic warning colouration. We further show how this selection regime can both limit and facilitate the diversification of mimetic traits.

scholarly journals Dominant words rise to the top by positive frequency-dependent selection

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (15) ◽  
pp. 7397-7402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Pagel ◽  
Mark Beaumont ◽  
Andrew Meade ◽  
Annemarie Verkerk ◽  
Andreea Calude
Keyword(s):  
Natural Populations ◽  
Word Choice ◽  
Random Drift ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Neutral Drift ◽  
Word Use ◽  
New Words ◽  
Core Lexicon ◽  
Positive Frequency

A puzzle of language is how speakers come to use the same words for particular meanings, given that there are often many competing alternatives (e.g., “sofa,” “couch,” “settee”), and there is seldom a necessary connection between a word and its meaning. The well-known process of random drift—roughly corresponding in this context to “say what you hear”—can cause the frequencies of alternative words to fluctuate over time, and it is even possible for one of the words to replace all others, without any form of selection being involved. However, is drift alone an adequate explanation of a shared vocabulary? Darwin thought not. Here, we apply models of neutral drift, directional selection, and positive frequency-dependent selection to explain over 417,000 word-use choices for 418 meanings in two natural populations of speakers. We find that neutral drift does not in general explain word use. Instead, some form of selection governs word choice in over 91% of the meanings we studied. In cases where one word dominates all others for a particular meaning—such as is typical of the words in the core lexicon of a language—word choice is guided by positive frequency-dependent selection—a bias that makes speakers disproportionately likely to use the words that most others use. This bias grants an increasing advantage to the common form as it becomes more popular and provides a mechanism to explain how a shared vocabulary can spontaneously self-organize and then be maintained for centuries or even millennia, despite new words continually entering the lexicon.

scholarly journals Colour polymorphism torn apart by opposing positive frequency-dependent selection, yet maintained in space

2015 ◽  
Vol 84 (6) ◽  
pp. 1555-1564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swanne P. Gordon ◽  
Hanna Kokko ◽  
Bibiana Rojas ◽  
Ossi Nokelainen ◽  
Johanna Mappes
Keyword(s):  
Colour Polymorphism ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Positive Frequency

scholarly journals Consistent female preference for rare and unfamiliar male color patterns in wild guppy populations

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1672-1681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer J Valvo ◽  
F Helen Rodd ◽  
Kimberly A Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Color Patterns ◽  
High Genetic Diversity ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Negative Frequency Dependent Selection

Abstract How genetic variation is maintained in ecologically important traits is a central question in evolutionary biology. Male Trinidadian guppies, Poecilia reticulata, exhibit high genetic diversity in color patterns within populations, and field and laboratory studies implicate negative frequency-dependent selection in maintaining this variation. However, behavioral and ecological processes that mediate this selection in natural populations are poorly understood. We evaluated female mate preference in 11 natural guppy populations, including paired populations from high- and low-predation habitats, to determine if this behavior is responsible for negative frequency-dependent selection and to evaluate its prevalence in nature. Females directed significantly more attention to males with rare and unfamiliar color patterns than to males with common patterns. Female attention also increased with the area of male orange coloration, but this preference was independent of the preference for rare and unfamiliar patterns. We also found an overall effect of predation regime; females from high-predation populations directed more attention toward males than those from low-predation populations. Again, however, the habitat-linked preference was statistically independent from the preference for rare and unfamiliar patterns. Because previous research indicates that female attention to males predicts male mating success, we conclude that the prevalence of female preference for males with rare and unfamiliar color patterns across many natural populations supports the hypothesis that female preference is an important process underlying the maintenance of high genetic variation in guppy color patterns.

scholarly journals MODELING THE MAINTENANCE OF A DEPENDENT LINEAGE SYSTEM: THE INFLUENCE OF POSITIVE FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION ON SEX RATIO

Evolution ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 63 (8) ◽  
pp. 2142-2152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirk E. Anderson ◽  
Chris R. Smith ◽  
Timothy A. Linksvayer ◽  
Brendon M. Mott ◽  
Jürgen Gadau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Positive Frequency

scholarly journals Simulation of legume-rhizobia symbiosis evolution under the multi-strain competition of bacteria for inoculation of symbiotic habitats

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolay I Vorobyov ◽  
Nikolay A Provorov
Keyword(s):  
Plant Population ◽  
Population Diversity ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Strain Competition ◽  
Symbiosis Evolution

The model is suggested for evolution of N<sub>2</sub>-fixing legume-rhizobia symbiosis implemented under the conditions of multi-strain bacteria competition for inoculation of symbiotic habitats (rhizosphere, nodules). Competitiveness of each strain is characterized by the power coefficients which reflect the operation of frequency-dependent selection in the rhizobia population. When polymorphic bacteria populations are interacting with the dimorphic plant population, the selective pressures in favor of hostspecific symbionts (forming N<sub>2</sub>-fixing nodules only with one of the available plant genotypes) are higher than the pressures in favor of non-host-specific symbionts (forming these nodules with both plant genotypes). The highest mutualism efficiency is reached under an intermediate level of plant population diversity.

scholarly journals Evolutionary mechanisms that determine which bacterial genes are carried on plasmids

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Lehtinen ◽  
Jana S. Huisman ◽  
Sebastian Bonhoeffer
Keyword(s):  
Antibiotic Resistance ◽  
Gene Location ◽  
Priority Effect ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Previous Theory ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Positive Frequency Dependence ◽  
Bacterial Genes ◽  
Positive Frequency

AbstractThe evolutionary pressures that determine the location (chromosomal or plasmid-borne) of bacterial genes are not fully understood. We investigate these pressures through mathematical modelling in the context of antibiotic resistance, which is often found on plasmids. Our central finding is that gene location is under positive frequency-dependent selection, which can keep moderately beneficial genes on plasmids, despite occasional plasmid loss. For these genes, positive frequency-dependence leads to a priority effect: whichever form is acquired first has time to increase in frequency and thus become difficult to displace. We therefore propose that some traits, including antibiotic resistance, are found on plasmids because they are typically acquired on plasmids. Gene flow between plasmid and chromosome allows chromosomal forms to arise, but positive frequency-dependent selection prevents these from establishing. We also re-visit some previous theory in light of our results, with implications for plasmid persistence and the role of local adaptation in plasmid dynamics.

scholarly journals Warning signals are under positive frequency-dependent selection in nature

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (8) ◽  
pp. 2164-2169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathieu Chouteau ◽  
Mónica Arias ◽  
Mathieu Joron
Keyword(s):  
Life History Traits ◽  
Purifying Selection ◽  
Warning Signal ◽  
Warning Signals ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Local Abundance ◽  
Signal Diversity ◽  
Predator Community ◽  
Positive Frequency

Positive frequency-dependent selection (FDS) is a selection regime where the fitness of a phenotype increases with its frequency, and it is thought to underlie important adaptive strategies resting on signaling and communication. However, whether and how positive FDS truly operates in nature remains unknown, which hampers our understanding of signal diversity. Here, we test for positive FDS operating on the warning color patterns of chemically defended butterflies forming multiple coexisting mimicry assemblages in the Amazon. Using malleable prey models placed in localities showing differences in the relative frequencies of warningly colored prey, we demonstrate that the efficiency of a warning signal increases steadily with its local frequency in the natural community, up to a threshold where protection stabilizes. The shape of this relationship is consistent with the direct effect of the local abundance of each warning signal on the corresponding avoidance knowledge of the local predator community. This relationship, which differs from purifying selection acting on each mimetic pattern, indicates that predator knowledge, integrated over the entire community, is saturated only for the most common warning signals. In contrast, among the well-established warning signals present in local prey assemblages, most are incompletely known to local predators and enjoy incomplete protection. This incomplete predator knowledge should generate strong benefits to life history traits that enhance warning efficiency by increasing the effective frequency of prey visible to predators. Strategies such as gregariousness or niche convergence between comimics may therefore readily evolve through their effects on predator knowledge and warning efficiency.

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