When the optimal phenotype differs among environments, adaptive phenotypic plasticity can evolve unless constraints impede such evolution. Costs and limits of plasticity have been proposed as ...important constraints on the evolution of plasticity, yet confusion exists over their distinction. We attempt to clarify these concepts by reviewing their categorization and measurement, highlighting how costs and limits are defined in different currencies (and may describe the same phenomenon). Conclusions from studies that measure the costs of plasticity have been equivocal, but we caution that these conclusions may be premature owing to a potentially common correlation between environment-specific trait values and the magnitude of trait plasticities (i.e. multi-collinearity) that results in imprecise and/or biased estimates of the costs. Meanwhile, our understanding of the limits of plasticity, and how they may be underlain by the costs of plasticity, is still in its infancy. Based on our re-evaluation of these constraints, we discuss areas for future research.
Excluding insects, hermaphroditism occurs in about one-third of animal species, providing numerous opportunities for the evolution of selfing. Here we provide an overview of reproductive traits in ...hermaphroditic animal species, review the distribution of selfing rates in animals, and test for ecological correlates of selfing. Our dataset (1342 selfing-rate estimates for 142 species) is 97% based on estimates derived from the analysis of population structure (FIS-estimates) using genetic markers. The distribution of selfing is slightly 𝗨-shaped and differs significantly from the more strongly 𝗨-shaped plant distribution with 47% of animal t-estimates being intermediate (falling between 0.2 and 0.8) compared to 42% for plants. The influence of several factors on the distribution of selfing rates was explored (e.g., number of populations studied per species, habitat, coloniality, sessility, or fertilization type), none of which significantly affect the distribution. Our results suggest that genetic forces might contribute to the evolution of self-fertilization to the same extent in animals and plants, although the high proportion of intermediate outcrossing suggests a significant role of ecological factors (e.g., reproductive assurance) in animals. However, we caution that the distribution of selfing rates in animals is affected by various factors that might bias FIS-estimates, including phylogenetic underrepresentation of highly selfing and outcrossing species, various genotyping errors (e.g., null alleles) and inbreeding depression. This highlights the necessity of obtaining better estimates of selfing for hermaphroditic animals, such as genotyping progeny arrays, as in plants.
Phenotypic plasticity is ubiquitous and generally regarded as a key mechanism for enabling organisms to survive in the face of environmental change. Because no organism is infinitely or ideally ...plastic, theory suggests that there must be limits (for example, the lack of ability to produce an optimal trait) to the evolution of phenotypic plasticity, or that plasticity may have inherent significant costs. Yet numerous experimental studies have not detected widespread costs. Explicitly differentiating plasticity costs from phenotype costs, we re-evaluate fundamental questions of the limits to the evolution of plasticity and of generalists vs specialists. We advocate for the view that relaxed selection and variable selection intensities are likely more important constraints to the evolution of plasticity than the costs of plasticity. Some forms of plasticity, such as learning, may be inherently costly. In addition, we examine opportunities to offset costs of phenotypes through ontogeny, amelioration of phenotypic costs across environments, and the condition-dependent hypothesis. We propose avenues of further inquiry in the limits of plasticity using new and classic methods of ecological parameterization, phylogenetics and omics in the context of answering questions on the constraints of plasticity. Given plasticity's key role in coping with environmental change, approaches spanning the spectrum from applied to basic will greatly enrich our understanding of the evolution of plasticity and resolve our understanding of limits.
Seed dormancy, by controlling the timing of germination, can strongly affect plant survival. The kind of seed dormancy, therefore, can influence both population and species‐level processes such as ...colonization, adaptation, speciation, and extinction. We used a dataset comprising over 14 000 taxa in 318 families across the seed plants to test hypotheses on the evolution of different kinds of seed dormancy and their association with lineage diversification. We found morphophysiological dormancy to be the most likely ancestral state of seed plants, suggesting that physiologically regulated dormancy in response to environmental cues was present at the origin of seed plants. Additionally, we found that physiological dormancy (PD), once disassociated from morphological dormancy, acted as an ‘evolutionary hub’ from which other dormancy classes evolved, and that it was associated with higher rates of lineage diversification via higher speciation rates. The environmental sensitivity provided by dormancy in general, and by PD in particular, appears to be a key trait in the diversification of seed plants.
The scope of Baker's law Pannell, John R.; Auld, Josh R.; Brandvain, Yaniv ...
The New phytologist,
November 2015, Letnik:
208, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Baker's law refers to the tendency for species that establish on islands by long-distance dispersal to show an increased capacity for self-fertilization because of the advantage of self-compatibility ...when colonizing new habitat. Despite its intuitive appeal and broad empirical support, it has received substantial criticism over the years since it was proclaimed in the 1950s, not least because it seemed to be contradicted by the high frequency of dioecy on islands. Recent theoretical work has again questioned the generality and scope of Baker's law. Here, we attempt to discern where the idea is useful to apply and where it is not. We conclude that several of the perceived problems with Baker's law fall away when a narrower perspective is adopted on how it should be circumscribed. We emphasize that Baker's law should be read in terms of an enrichment of a capacity for uniparental reproduction in colonizing situations, rather than of high selfing rates. We suggest that Baker's law might be tested in four different contexts, which set the breadth of its scope: the colonization of oceanic islands, metapopulation dynamics with recurrent colonization, range expansions with recurrent colonization, and colonization through species invasions.
We present 21-cm observations of a 10 × 2 deg2 region in the Virgo cluster, obtained as part of the Arecibo Galaxy Environment Survey. 289 sources are detected over the full redshift range (−2000 < v
...hel < +20 000 km s−1) with 95 belonging to the cluster (v
hel < 3000 km s−1). We combine our observations with data from the optically selected Virgo Cluster Catalogue (VCC) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Most of our detections can be clearly associated with a unique optical counterpart, and 30 per cent of the cluster detections are new objects fainter than the VCC optical completeness limit. Seven detections may have no optical counterpart and we discuss the possible origins of these objects. Seven detections appear associated with early-type galaxies. We perform H i stacking on the H i-undetected galaxies listed in the VCC in this region and show that they must have significantly less gas than those actually detected in H i. Galaxies undetected in H i in the cluster appear to be really devoid of gas, in contrast to a sample of field galaxies from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA).
The Red Queen hypothesis can explain the maintenance of host and parasite diversity. However, the Red Queen requires genetic specificity for infection risk (i.e., that infection depends on the exact ...combination of host and parasite genotypes) and strongly virulent effects of infection on host fitness. A European crustacean (Daphnia magna)--bacterium (Pasteuria ramosa) system typifies such specificity and high virulence. We studied the North American host Daphnia dentifera and its natural parasite Pasteuria ramosa, and also found strong genetic specificity for infection success and high virulence. These results suggest that Pasteuria could promote Red Queen dynamics with D. dentifera populations as well. However, the Red Queen might be undermined in this system by selection from a more common yeast parasite (Metschnikowia bicuspidata). Resistance to the yeast did not correlate with resistance to Pasteuria among host genotypes, suggesting that selection by Metschnikowia should proceed relatively independently of selection by Pasteuria.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Because establishing a new population often depends critically on finding mates, individuals capable of uniparental reproduction may have a colonization advantage. Accordingly, there should be an ...over-representation of colonizing species in which individuals can reproduce without a mate, particularly in isolated locales such as oceanic islands. Despite the intuitive appeal of this colonization filter hypothesis (known as Baker’s law), more than six decades of analyses have yielded mixed findings.
We assembled a dataset of island and mainland plant breeding systems, focusing on the presence or absence of self-incompatibility. Because this trait enforces outcrossing and is unlikely to re-evolve on short timescales if it is lost, breeding system is especially likely to reflect the colonization filter.
We found significantly more self-compatible species on islands than mainlands across a sample of > 1500 species from three widely distributed flowering plant families (Asteraceae, Brassicaceae and Solanaceae). Overall, 66% of island species were self-compatible, compared with 41% of mainland species.
Our results demonstrate that the presence or absence of self-incompatibility has strong explanatory power for plant geographical patterns. Island floras around the world thus reflect the role of a key reproductive trait in filtering potential colonizing species in these three plant families.
1. Ecoimmunologists aim to understand the costs, benefits, and net fitness consequences of different strategies for immune defense. 2. Measuring the fitness consequences of immune responses is ...difficult, partly because of complex relationships between host fitness and the within-host density of parasites and immunological cells or molecules. In particular, neither the strongest immune responses nor the lowest parasite densities necessarily maximize host fitness. 3. Here, we propose that ecoimmunologists should routinely endeavour to measure three intertwined parameters: host fitness, parasite density, and relevant immune responses. We further propose that analyses of relationships among these traits would benefit from the statistical machinery used for analyses of phenotypic plasticity and/or methods that are robust to the bi-directional causation inherent in host-parasite relationships. For example, analyses of how host fitness depends upon parasite density, which is an evolutionary ecological definition of tolerance, would benefit from these more robust methods. 4. Together, these steps promote rigorous quantification of the fitness consequences of immune responses. Such quantification is essential if ecoimmunologists are to decipher causes of immune polymorphism in nature and predict trajectories of natural selection on immune defense.
Populations experiencing varying levels of ionizing radiation provide an excellent opportunity to study the fundamental drivers of evolution. Radiation can cause mutations and thus supply genetic ...variation; it can also selectively remove individuals that are unable to cope with the physiological stresses associated with radiation exposure, or non‐selectively cull swathes of the population, reducing genetic variation. Since the nuclear power plant explosion in 1986, the Chernobyl area has experienced a spatially heterogeneous exposure to varying levels of ionizing radiation. We sampled Daphnia pulex (a freshwater crustacean) from lakes across the Chernobyl area, genotyped them at ten microsatellite loci and also calculated the current radiation dose rates. We then investigated whether the pattern of genetic diversity was positively associated with radiation dose rates, consistent with radiation‐mediated supply of de novo mutations, or negatively associated with radiation dose rates, as would be expected with strong radiation‐mediated selection. We found that measures of genetic diversity, including expected heterozygosity and mean allelic richness (an unbiased indicator of diversity), were significantly higher in lakes that experienced the highest radiation dose rates. This suggests that mutation outweighs selection as the key evolutionary force in populations exposed to high radiation dose rates. We also found significant but weak population structure, indicative of low genetic drift and clear evidence for isolation‐by‐distance between populations. This further suggests that gene flow between nearby populations is eroding population structure and that mutational input in high radiation lakes could, ultimately, supply genetic variation to lower radiation sites.
We examined population genetic diversity across Chernobyl Daphnia populations. Measures of genetic diversity, including expected heterozygosity and mean allelic richness, were higher in lakes that experienced the highest radiation dose rates. This suggests that mutation outweighs selection as the key evolutionary force in populations exposed to high radiation dose rates.
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