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Category Archives: adaptation
New insight into the genetic basis of industrial melanism
The evolution of coloration in peppered moths during the industrial revolution is one of the most well known examples of natural selection in action. Part of the appeal of the system is the apparent simplicity. The once-abundant light colored morph … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, association genetics, genomics, mutation, selection
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New World snakes are "mimics until proven otherwise"
Henry Walter Bates spent more than a decade living in the Amazon, having the sort of adventures that inspired generations of naturalists. His most famous and lasting contributions to natural history are his foundational descriptions of mimicry among species. The type … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, evolution, natural history, phylogenetics
Tagged bad photoshop, mimicry, snakes
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Ice-Age Euro-trips
Recent works that attempt to get at human migrations inside Europe paint a complex portrait of migratory events, admixture with archaic hominids, and adaptive evolution to new geographies, and a changing global climate. Analyzing whole genomes of 51 ancient humans … Continue reading
What does the island fox say?
Small populations are characterized by large drift and reduced efficacy of selection effects, which result in fixation of both advantageous and deleterious alleles, accumulation of homozygosity, and often reduction in population fitness. What with plummeting mammal populations across biota, understanding … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, evolution, genomics, mutation, natural history, population genetics, selection
Tagged Evolution, genomics, natural selection, population genetics
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The simpler cichlid: a recent adaptive radiation
If I was asked to name a few of the most compelling systems in evolutionary biology, I’d certainly start with Darwin’s Finches. Next might come peppered moths, African cichlids, stickleback, Caribbean Anolis lizards, or Lenski’s E. coli. What’s interesting about … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, evolution, selection, speciation
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Searching for heroic MHC genes in the fight against fungal takeover
Frogs have been disappearing all around the world in the past few decades. The reasons for these declines have been complex, but one of the biggest players is a nasty disease with an even nastier-sounding name: chytridiomycosis. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is the … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, association genetics, selection
Tagged Amphibians, chytrid, disease
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What makes a range?
Why do species have restricted geographic distributions? Classic ecological perspectives tell us distribution limits occur where ecological parameters coincide with the boundaries of ecological niches. Evolutionary perspectives, on the other hand, surmise distribution boundaries reflect a failure of niche evolution. Though small … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, evolution, plants, selection, theory
Tagged ecology, Evolution, latitude, multivariate traits, quantitative genetics, Range limits
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When times are good or bad, happy or sad, viral quasispecies like to stay together
We’ve known for a long time that symbioses are important across all walks of life. Clownfish and sea anemones are obligate symbionts, and bacteria found in legume root nodules help fix nitrogen. In a nice review published recently in Evolutionary … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, Coevolution, evolution
Tagged Evolution, holobiont, human health, quasispecies
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There and back again: an angiosperm's tale
Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is the dominant seagrass in the northern hemisphere and provides the foundation of highly productive ecosystems that rival tropical rain forests and coral reefs in ecosystem services. Zostera isn’t really a grass, but a monocot, like a … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, bioinformatics, community ecology, evolution, genomics, plants
Tagged Evolution, genome, plants, salinity, seagrass
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