Population size and the rate of evolution

Lanfear, Robert; Kokko, Hanna; Eyre‐Walker, Adam

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2013.09.009

Cited by 367 publications

(376 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…First, grazing pressure by the co-evolved predator was higher compared with the evolved and in particular to the stock predators, resulting in higher selection pressure on the prey population. Second, the higher selection pressure led to smaller population sizes in the prey at the beginning of the experiment, which might have changed the relative importance of drift and selection and the supply of mutations [46][47][48] . A third explanation for the higher rates of adaptation with co-evolved predators is based on the observation of trade-offs between being defended and competitive.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumer co-evolution as an important component of the eco-evolutionary feedback

2014

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Rapid evolution in ecologically relevant traits has recently been recognized to significantly alter the interaction between consumers and their resources, a key interaction in all ecological communities. While these eco-evolutionary dynamics have been shown to occur when prey populations are evolving, little is known about the role of predator evolution and co-evolution between predator and prey in this context. Here, we investigate the role of consumer co-evolution for eco-evolutionary feedback in bacteria-ciliate microcosm experiments by manipulating the initial trait variation in the predator populations. With co-evolved predators, prey evolve anti-predatory defences faster, trait values are more variable, and predator and prey population sizes are larger at the end of the experiment compared with the nonco-evolved predators. Most importantly, differences in predator traits results in a shift from evolution driving ecology, to ecology driving evolution. Thus we demonstrate that predator co-evolution has important effects on eco-evolutionary dynamics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumer co-evolution as an important component of the eco-evolutionary feedback

2014

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“…If N e would be consistently smaller in colder areas, populations from such sites should therefore be stronger differentiated [59]. However, the opposite is the case (figure 2).…”

Section: (A) Ruling Out the Influence Of Population Historymentioning

confidence: 92%

Support for the evolutionary speed hypothesis from intraspecific population genetic data in the non-biting midgeChironomus riparius

et al. 2016

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The evolutionary speed hypothesis (ESH) proposes a causal mechanism for the latitudinal diversity gradient. The central idea of the ESH is that warmer temperatures lead to shorter generation times and increased mutation rates. On an absolute time scale, both should lead to an acceleration of selection and drift. Based on the ESH, we developed predictions regarding the distribution of intraspecific genetic diversity: populations of ectothermic species with more generations per year owing to warmer ambient temperatures should be more differentiated from each other, accumulate more mutations and show evidence for increased mutation rates compared with populations in colder regions. We used the multivoltine insect species Chironomus riparius to test these predictions with cytochrome oxidase I (COI) sequence data and found that populations from warmer regions are indeed significantly more differentiated and have significantly more derived haplotypes than populations from colder regions. We also found a significant correlation of the annual mean temperature with the population mutation parameter u that serves as a proxy for the per generation mutation rate under certain assumptions. This pattern could be corroborated with two nuclear loci. Overall, our results support the ESH and indicate that the thermal regime experienced may be crucially driving the evolution of ectotherms and may thus ultimately govern their speciation rate.

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“…In addition, linkage disequilibrium will increase (Wright et al, 2005) through reduced N e r (where N e is the effective population size and r is the recombination rate). It is expected that selective effects over the population gene pool would be attenuated because the value |N e s| (s is the coefficient of selection) would be reduced (see review at Lanfear et al, 2013). Therefore, a relatively large proportion of variants would be neutral (that is, |2N e s|p1), and a relatively large number of slightly deleterious mutations would thus be fixed through drift, possibly increasing the ratio of fixed nonsynonymous versus synonymous mutations (Eyre-Walker, 2002).…”

Section: Moving Towards An Autosomal and Paternal Marker-based Definimentioning

confidence: 99%

Mining the pig genome to investigate the domestication process

et al. 2014

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Pig domestication began around 9000 YBP in the Fertile Crescent and Far East, involving marked morphological and genetic changes that occurred in a relatively short window of time. Identifying the alleles that drove the behavioural and physiological transformation of wild boars into pigs through artificial selection constitutes a formidable challenge that can only be faced from an interdisciplinary perspective. Indeed, although basic facts regarding the demography of pig domestication and dispersal have been uncovered, the biological substrate of these processes remains enigmatic. Considerable hope has been placed on new approaches, based on next-generation sequencing, which allow whole-genome variation to be analyzed at the population level. In this review, we provide an outline of the current knowledge on pig domestication by considering both archaeological and genetic data. Moreover, we discuss several potential scenarios of genome evolution under the complex mixture of demography and selection forces at play during domestication. Finally, we highlight several technical and methodological approaches that may represent significant advances in resolving the conundrum of livestock domestication.

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Population size and the rate of evolution

Cited by 367 publications

References 97 publications

Consumer co-evolution as an important component of the eco-evolutionary feedback

Consumer co-evolution as an important component of the eco-evolutionary feedback

Support for the evolutionary speed hypothesis from intraspecific population genetic data in the non-biting midgeChironomus riparius

Mining the pig genome to investigate the domestication process

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