No abstract

Ecological differences often evolve early in speciation as divergent natural selection drives adaptation to distinct ecological niches, leading ultimately to reproductive isolation. Though this process is a major generator of biodiversity, its genetic basis remains poorly understood. Here we investigate the genetic architecture of niche differentiation in a sympatric species pair of threespine stickleback fish by mapping the environment-dependent effects of phenotypic traits on hybrid feeding and performance under semi-natural conditions. We show that multiple, unlinked loci act largely additively to determine position along the major niche axis separating these recently diverged species. We also find that functional mismatch between phenotypic traits reduces growth of some stickleback hybrids beyond that expected from an intermediate phenotype, suggesting a role for epistasis between the underlying genes. This functional mismatch might lead to hybrid incompatibilities that are analogous to those underlying intrinsic reproductive isolation but that depend on the ecological context.

Individual variation in the diet of consumers is common in many ecological systems and has important implications for the study of population dynamics, animal behavior, and evolutionary or ecological interactions. Ecologists frequently quantify the niche of a population by intensive analyses of gut contents and feeding behaviors of consumers. Inter-individual differences in delta13C signature can indicate long term differences in feeding behavior, often unattainable by a single snapshot analysis of gut contents. If a consumer's food sources have unique delta13C signatures, then the intrapopulation variation in delta13C may be useful for quantifying diet variation and detecting isotopic evidence of individual specialization. However, intrapopulation variation in delta13C can underestimate or overestimate dietary variation, and therefore is not directly equivalent to a dietary based niche. In this paper we show that intrapopulation variability of delta13C in consumers critically depends on the isotopic range and distribution of food sources. Our analyses fundamentally challenge how we interpret the intrapopulation isotopic variance of delta13C, and how we evaluate isotopic evidence of individual specialization.

Despite a conceptual understanding that evolution and species interactions are inextricably linked, it remains challenging to study ecological and evolutionary dynamics together over long temporal scales. In this review, we argue that, despite inherent challenges associated with reconstructing historical processes, the interplay of ecology and evolution is central to our understanding of macroevolution and community coexistence, and cannot be safely ignored in community and comparative phylogenetic studies. We highlight new research avenues that foster greater consideration of both ecological and evolutionary dynamics as processes that occur along branches of phylogenetic trees. By promoting new ways forward using this perspective, we hope to inspire further integration that creatively co-utilizes phylogenies and ecological data to study eco-evolutionary dynamics over time and space.

Background: A complete genome sequence and the advent of genome editing open up non-traditional model organisms to mechanistic genetic studies. The mosquito Aedes aegypti is an important vector of infectious diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever and has a large and complex genome, which has slowed annotation efforts. We used comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of adult gene expression to improve the genome annotation and to provide a detailed tissue-specific catalogue of neural gene expression at different adult behavioral states.