To ensure long-term persistence, organisms must adapt to climate change, but an evolutionary response to a quantified selection pressure driven by climate change has not been empirically demonstrated in a wild population. Here, we show that pheomelanin-based plumage colouration in tawny owls is a highly heritable trait, consistent with a simple Mendelian pattern of brown (dark) dominance over grey (pale). We show that strong viability selection against the brown morph occurs, but only under snow-rich winters. As winter conditions became milder in the last decades, selection against the brown morph diminished. Concurrent with this reduced selection, the frequency of brown morphs increased rapidly in our study population during the last 28 years and nationwide during the last 48 years. Hence, we show the first evidence that recent climate change alters natural selection in a wild population leading to a microevolutionary response, which demonstrates the ability of wild populations to evolve in response to climate change.

Adoptive cell therapy holds much promise in the treatment of cancer but results in solid tumors have been modest. The notable exception is tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy of melanoma, but this approach only works with high-dose preconditioning chemotherapy and systemic interleukin (IL)-2 postconditioning, both of which are associated with toxicities. To improve and broaden the applicability of adoptive cell transfer, we constructed oncolytic adenoviruses coding for human IL-2 (hIL2), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), or both. The viruses showed potent antitumor efficacy against human tumors in immunocompromised severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice. In immunocompetent Syrian hamsters, we combined the viruses with TIL transfer and were able to cure 100% of the animals. Cured animals were protected against tumor re-challenge, indicating a memory response. Arming with IL-2 and TNF-α increased the frequency of both CD4+ and CD8+ TILs in vivo and augmented splenocyte proliferation ex vivo, suggesting that the cytokines were important for T cell persistence and proliferation. Cytokine expression was limited to tumors and treatment-related signs of systemic toxicity were absent, suggesting safety. To conclude, cytokine-armed oncolytic adenoviruses enhanced adoptive cell therapy by favorable alteration of the tumor microenvironment. A clinical trial is in progress to study the utility of Ad5/3-E2F-d24-hTNFa-IRES-hIL2 (TILT-123) in human patients with cancer.

Because population size is sensitive to changes in adult survival, adult survival may be buffered against environmental variability. Philopatry may be adaptive in changing environments, but it could also constrain breeding habitat selection under changing conditions such as shifting predation regimes. Habitat preference and quality could become decoupled in long-lived philopatric species that evolved in stable environments when suddenly faced by increased adult predation risk, as dispersal may be triggered by past reproductive failure. We evaluated whether the Baltic eider (Somateria m. mollissima) population may currently face a predation-induced ecological trap. Eiders are philopatric and nest on open and forested islands. We hypothesized that open-nesting females would be disproportionately affected by increased predation. We compared female annual survival in these two habitats in 1996-2010. We also tested for effects of time trends, winter severity (NAO), female body condition, and habitat-specific predation pressure on survival. Our results revealed the lowest survival recorded for this species (Φ = 0.720), and survival on open islands was significantly lower (Φ = 0.679) than on forested islands (Φ = 0.761). Nonetheless, only 0.7 % of females changed breeding habitat type despite ample availability of alternative islands, and breeding phenology in both habitats was similar. Female survival increased with body condition, while it was unrelated to winter climate and stable over time. Open islands had a higher predation pressure on incubating females. Breeding philopatry results in a predator-mediated ecological trap for open-nesting eiders. Our results contribute to explaining the drastic decline of the Baltic eider population.