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As species richness varies along the tree of life, there is a great interest in identifying factors that affect the rates by which lineages speciate or go extinct. To this end, theoretical biologists have developed a suite of phylogenetic comparative methods that aim to identify where shifts in diversification rates had occurred along a phylogeny and whether they are associated with some traits. Using...
The role of genetic architecture in adaptation to novel environments has received considerable attention when the source of adaptive variation is de novo mutation. Relatively less is known when the source of adaptive variation is inter‐ or intraspecific hybridization. We model hybridization between divergent source populations and subsequent colonization of an unoccupied novel environment using individual‐based...
Evolutionary rescue can prevent populations from declining under climate change, and should be more likely at high‐latitude, “leading” edges of species’ ranges due to greater temperature anomalies and gene flow from warm‐adapted populations. Using a resurrection study with seeds collected before and after a 7‐year period of record warming, we tested for thermal adaptation in the scarlet monkeyflower...
Rates of climatic niche evolution vary widely across the tree of life and are strongly associated with rates of diversification among clades. However, why the climatic niche evolves more rapidly in some clades than others remains unclear. Variation in life history traits often plays a key role in determining the environmental conditions under which species can survive, and therefore, could impact...
Natural variation as well as human impacts can alter the light environment in lakes in ways that affect aquatic host‐parasite interactions. In laboratory infection assays, Rogalski and Duffy (2020) determine that the bacterial parasite Pasteuria ramosa adapts to solar radiation by increasing its transmission potential to its zooplankton host, Daphnia dentifera. Local adaptation to light can allow...
There is no general explanation for why species have restricted geographic distributions. One hypothesis posits that range expansion or increasing scarcity of suitable habitat results in accumulation of mutational load due to enhanced genetic drift, which constrains population performance toward range limits and further expansion. We tested this hypothesis in the North American plant, Arabidopsis lyrata...
Experimental and theoretical studies have highlighted the impact of gene flow on the probability of evolutionary rescue in structured habitats. Mathematical modeling and simulations of evolutionary rescue in spatially or otherwise structured populations showed that intermediate migration rates can often maximize the probability of rescue in gradually or abruptly deteriorating habitats. These theoretical...
Organisms are exposed to environmental and mutational effects influencing both mean and variance of phenotypes. Potentially deleterious effects arising from this variation can be reduced by the evolution of buffering (canalizing) mechanisms, ultimately reducing phenotypic variability. There has been interest regarding the conditions enabling the evolution of canalization. Under some models, the circumstances...
Many animals breed exclusively in plants that accumulate rainwater (phytotelma; e.g., bromeliad, bamboo, fruit husk, and tree hole), to which they are either physiologically or behaviorally specialized for this microhabitat. Of the numerous life‐history modes observed in frogs, few are as striking or potentially consequential as the transition from pond‐ or stream‐breeding to the deposition of eggs...
How do emergent properties of natural plant communities affect floral evolution? In this issue, Eisen et al. explored this question by studying selection on floral traits in natural communities of Clarkia species. They found that two community properties, namely congeneric species richness and floral density (of conspecifics and heterospecifics), influenced the patterns of selection, although not...
Reproductive isolation can result from incompatibilities between mutations that arise in different individuals. Wang and Cooper examined this mechanism of postzygotic isolation in Escherichia coli experimentally evolved in either glucose or lactose. They formed recombinants from parents evolved in the same or different environments. Both same‐environment and different‐environment recombinants had...
As a dispersive lineage expands its distribution across a heterogeneous landscape, it leaves behind allopatric populations with varying degrees of geographic isolation that often differentiate rapidly. In the case of oceanic islands, even narrowly separated populations often differentiate, which seems contrary to the highly dispersive nature of the founding lineage. This pattern of highly dispersive...
Although the evolution and diversification of flowers is often attributed to pollinator‐mediated selection, interactions between co‐occurring plant species can alter patterns of selection mediated by pollinators and other agents. The extent to which both floral density and congeneric species richness affect patterns of net and pollinator‐mediated selection on multiple co‐occurring species in a community...
Do mitonuclear interactions impact life history traits? Rank et al. found that these genomic interactions are of great importance in wild populations of the leaf beetle Chrysomela aeneicollis and may explain why populations are highly differentiated.
What determines the rate at which species adapt to new climatic conditions? Weaver et al. found that the evolution of short larval periods promotes climatic niche evolution in salamanders in the genus Desmognathus.
Understanding of the causes by which reproductive isolation arises remains limited. We examine the role of adaptation in driving reproductive isolation among 12 Escherichia coli populations evolved in two different environments. We found that, regardless of whether parents were selected in the same or different environments, the average fitness of recombinants was lower than the expected, consistent...
Elaborate sexually selected ornaments and armaments are costly but increase the reproductive success of their bearers (usually males). It has been postulated that high‐quality males can invest disproportionately more in such traits, making those traits honest signals of genetic quality. However, genes associated with such traits may have sexually antagonistic effects on fitness. Here, using a bulb...
Saurischian dinosaurs evolved seven orders of magnitude in body mass, as well as a wide diversity of hip joint morphology and locomotor postures. The very largest saurischians possess incongruent bony hip joints, suggesting that large volumes of soft tissues mediated hip articulation. To understand the evolutionary trends and functional relationships between body size and hip anatomy of saurischians,...
Although metamorphosis is widespread in the animal kingdom, several species have evolved life‐cycle modifications to avoid complete metamorphosis. Some species, for example, many salamanders and newts, have deleted the adult stage via a process called paedomorphosis. Others, for example, some frog species and marine invertebrates, no longer have a distinct larval stage and reach maturation via direct...
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