scholarly journals Integrating transcriptomic network reconstruction and QTL analyses reveals mechanistic connections between genomic architecture and Brassica rapa development

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Baker ◽  
Wen Fung Leong ◽  
Marcus T. Brock ◽  
Matthew J. Rubin ◽  
R. J. Cody Markelz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brassica Rapa ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Final Height ◽  
Growth Curves ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Growing Seasons ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Structural Trait ◽  
Relevant Field ◽  
Developmental Dynamics

ABSTRACTPlant developmental dynamics can be heritable, genetically correlated with fitness and yield, and undergo selection. Therefore, characterizing the mechanistic connections between the genetic architecture governing plant development and the resulting ontogenetic dynamics of plants in field settings is critically important for agricultural production and evolutionary ecology. We use a hierarchical Bayesian Function-Valued Trait (FVT) approach to estimate Brassica rapa growth curves throughout ontogeny, across two treatments and in two growing seasons. We find that the shape of growth curves is relatively plastic across environments compared to final height, and that there are trade-offs between growth rate and duration. We determined that combining FVT Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) and genes/eigengene expression identified via transcriptomic co-expression network reconstructions best characterized phenotypic variation. Further, targeted eQTL analyses identified regulatory hotspots that colocalized with FVT QTL and co-expression network identified genes and mechanistically link FVT QTL with structural trait variation throughout development in agroecologically relevant field settings.

Growth–defense trade-offs shape population genetic composition in an iconic forest tree species

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (37) ◽  
pp. e2103162118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia L. Cope ◽  
Ken Keefover-Ring ◽  
Eric L. Kruger ◽  
Richard L. Lindroth
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Forest Tree ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Spatiotemporal Scales ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences ◽  
Selection Of

All organisms experience fundamental conflicts between divergent metabolic processes. In plants, a pivotal conflict occurs between allocation to growth, which accelerates resource acquisition, and to defense, which protects existing tissue against herbivory. Trade-offs between growth and defense traits are not universally observed, and a central prediction of plant evolutionary ecology is that context-dependence of these trade-offs contributes to the maintenance of intraspecific variation in defense [Züst and Agrawal, Annu. Rev. Plant Biol., 68, 513–534 (2017)]. This prediction has rarely been tested, however, and the evolutionary consequences of growth–defense trade-offs in different environments are poorly understood, especially in long-lived species [Cipollini et al., Annual Plant Reviews (Wiley, 2014), pp. 263–307]. Here we show that intraspecific trait trade-offs, even when fixed across divergent environments, interact with competition to drive natural selection of tree genotypes corresponding to their growth–defense phenotypes. Our results show that a functional trait trade-off, when coupled with environmental variation, causes real-time divergence in the genetic architecture of tree populations in an experimental setting. Specifically, competitive selection for faster growth resulted in dominance by fast-growing tree genotypes that were poorly defended against natural enemies. This outcome is a signature example of eco-evolutionary dynamics: Competitive interactions affected microevolutionary trajectories on a timescale relevant to subsequent ecological interactions [Brunner et al., Funct. Ecol. 33, 7–12 (2019)]. Eco-evolutionary drivers of tree growth and defense are thus critical to stand-level trait variation, which structures communities and ecosystems over expansive spatiotemporal scales.

The seed ecology of Aegilops triuncialis: linking trait variation to growing conditions

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Dyer
Keyword(s):  
Seed Mass ◽  
Seed Viability ◽  
Seed Type ◽  
Aegilops Triuncialis ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Growing Seasons ◽  
Small Seed ◽  
Annual Grasses ◽  
Growing Conditions ◽  
Plastic Responses

AbstractAdaptive plastic responses in invasive species allow for establishment and persistence despite the lack of genetic matching to new environments. The capacity of annual species to invade habitats to which they are not adapted is likely to be predicated on post-invasion seed trait variation correlated with conditions in the new habitat. To test this, I compared variation in seed traits and germination patterns of Aegilops triuncialis, an invasive annual grass, from 69 sample populations from 24 sites in California (USA) across 13 years. Seed mass, germination fractions, seed viability, and strength of induced dormancy between dimorphic seed pairs were used to investigate plastic variation within and among populations, across two general soil types, and among two widespread maternal genotypes. I found that seed mass variation was constrained although both seed types showed a 3-fold range among populations, 20–25% variation within populations between years, and was positively correlated with longer growing seasons. However, induced seed dormancy in the small seed type was correlated with large seed mass and to late-season precipitation, suggesting that longer growing seasons influence the strength of maternal and sibling chemical signals that induce dormancy in the small seeds. Thus variation in small seed germination fractions varies with the growing conditions experienced by the maternal plant. The greater longevity of the small seed type suggests that plasticity in germination in this species may contribute to seed bank formation, which is atypical of invasive annual grasses in California, and this may contribute to the persistence and spread of A. triuncialis in invaded ranges.

The shape of a defense-growth trade-off governs seasonal trait dynamics in natural phytoplankton

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elias Ehrlich ◽  
Nadja J. Kath ◽  
Ursula Gaedke
Keyword(s):  
Fitness Landscape ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Grazing Pressure ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Community Persistence ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Combining Data ◽  
Persistence Theory

Functional trait compositions of communities can adapt to altered environmental conditions ensuring community persistence. Theory predicts that the shape of trade-offs between traits crucially affects these trait dynamics, but its empirical verification from the field is missing. Here, we show how the shape of a defense-growth trade-off governs seasonal trait dynamics of a natural community, using high-frequency, long-term measurements of phytoplankton from Lake Constance. As expected from the lab-derived concave trade-off curve, we observed an alternating dominance of several fast-growing species with intermediate defense levels and gradual changes of the biomass-trait distribution due to seasonally changing grazing pressure. By combining data and modelling, we obtain mechanistic insights on the underlying fitness landscape, and show that low fitness differences can maintain trait variation along the trade-off curve. We provide firm evidence for a frequently assumed trade-off and conclude that quantifying its shape allows to understand environmentally driven trait changes within communities.

Evolutionarily Stable Strategies

Ecology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Breed
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Interspecific Interactions ◽  
Developmental Time ◽  
Evolutionary Strategies ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable Strategies ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable

Evolutionarily stable strategies (ESS) are phenotypes that persist in populations over evolutionary time and cannot be replaced by invading strategies. Cases in which alternative strategies coexist stand as being of particular interest. Evolutionary biologists were introduced to the concept of ESS through the efforts of John Maynard Smith and George R. Price, whose work remains the keystone expression of this concept. Maynard Smith and Price dealt with animal conflicts, in which combatants may have differing strategies and physical abilities. The stability of evolutionary strategies is often analyzed using the tools of game theory, which allows determination of the persistence of strategies when played against one another. Game theory also opens the door to assessing the potential success of novel strategies upon introduction into a population. ESS often coincide with the Nash equilibrium, a game theory concept that describes conditions under which cognitively aware players in a game cannot gain by changing their individual strategy. In addition to animal conflict, analyses of ESS have been applied in a wide variety of evolutionary contexts and indeed are applicable whenever alternative heritable phenotypes are present. One possibility is that ESS occur as alternative genotypes within populations and thus should be analyzed using population-genetic approaches. ESS can also be conditionally expressed by individuals, depending on environmental and social context. This second option also requires a genotypic basis for strategies but allows for more strategical complexity through responses that may shift over developmental time or with experience. Interspecific interactions are an additional context for ESS, in which ESS drive evolutionary arms races between predators and prey or hosts and diseases or parasites. Maynard Smith and Price built on a conceptual framework in evolutionary ecology developed by William D. Hamilton in studies of kin selection, sex ratios, and herding behavior, and by Geoff Parker, working on sperm competition. ESS offer convenient latticework for thinking about many ecological and evolutionary trade-offs in which organisms balance costs and benefits of potential strategic choices in development and behavior, either in within-generation decision-making or between-generation evolution.

scholarly journals Sex roles, parental care and offspring growth in two contrasting coucal species

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 160463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Goymann ◽  
Ignas Safari ◽  
Christina Muck ◽  
Ingrid Schwabl
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Sex Roles ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Uniparental Care ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Offspring Growth ◽  
Adult Sex Ratio

The decision to provide parental care is often associated with trade-offs, because resources allocated to parental care typically cannot be invested in self-maintenance or mating. In most animals, females provide more parental care than males, but the reason for this pattern is still debated in evolutionary ecology. To better understand sex differences in parental care and its consequences, we need to study closely related species where the sexes differ in offspring care. We investigated parental care in relation to offspring growth in two closely related coucal species that fundamentally differ in sex roles and parental care, but live in the same food-rich habitat with a benign climate and have a similar breeding phenology. Incubation patterns differed and uniparental male black coucals fed their offspring two times more often than female and male white-browed coucals combined. Also, white-browed coucals had more ‘off-times’ than male black coucals, during which they perched and preened. However, these differences in parental care were not reflected in offspring growth, probably because white-browed coucals fed their nestlings a larger proportion of frogs than insects. A food-rich habitat with a benign climate may be a necessary, but—perhaps unsurprisingly—is not a sufficient factor for the evolution of uniparental care. In combination with previous results (Goymann et al . 2015 J. Evol. Biol . 28 , 1335–1353 ( doi:10.1111/jeb.12657 )), these data suggest that white-browed coucals may cooperate in parental care, because they lack opportunities to become polygamous rather than because both parents were needed to successfully raise all offspring. Our case study supports recent theory suggesting that permissive environmental conditions in combination with a particular life history may induce sexual selection in females. A positive feedback loop among sexual selection, body size and adult sex-ratio may then stabilize reversed sex roles in competition and parental care.

Animal decision making and its ecological consequences: the future of aquatic ecology and behaviour

1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 803-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence M. Dill
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Aquatic Ecology ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Net Energy ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Risk Of Predation ◽  
Conflicting Objectives ◽  
The Future

It is virtually impossible to predict the next 25 years of research in aquatic ecology and behaviour with any accuracy. However, by identifying those areas that are the current frontiers of the discipline it is possible to guess at the most likely research developments over the next decade. From my own biased perspective, the research programme most likely to be productive in the near future is that of behavioural ecology, which studies, among other things, animal decision making in an ecological context. I focus on situations in which animals must make decisions under conflicting objectives, e.g., to simultaneously maximize net energy intake while minimizing risk of predation. New data on guppies (Poecilia reticulata) are presented and the recent literature is reviewed to support the notion that animals in such situations behave so as to maximize fitness. Habitat choices, ontogenetic habitat shifts, and the phenomena of vertical migration and downstream drift are beginning to be considered in this general evolutionary framework, with novel results, and this trend will undoubtedly continue. Extension of the logic of trade-offs to the community level leads to a number of new insights about the processes that shape community structure, and affirms the need for aquatic ecologists of the future to have a thorough understanding of animal behaviour, and a working knowledge of such tools of evolutionary ecology as optimality reasoning and game theory.

scholarly journals How social behaviour and life-history traits change with age and in the year prior to death in female yellow-bellied marmots

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1823) ◽  
pp. 20190745
Author(s):  
Svenja B. Kroeger ◽  
Daniel T. Blumstein ◽  
Julien G. A. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Social Behaviours

Studies in natural populations are essential to understand the evolutionary ecology of senescence and terminal allocation. While there are an increasing number of studies investigating late-life variation in different life-history traits of wild populations, little is known about these patterns in social behaviour. We used long-term individual based data on yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer) to quantify how affiliative social behaviours and different life-history traits vary with age and in the last year of life, and how patterns compare between the two. We found that some social behaviours and all life-history traits varied with age, whereas terminal last year of life effects were only observed in life-history traits. Our results imply that affiliative social behaviours do not act as a mechanism to adjust allocation among traits when close to death, and highlight the importance of adopting an integrative approach, studying late-life variation and senescence across multiple different traits, to allow the identification of potential trade-offs.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ageing and sociality: why, when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?’

Current immunity markers in insect ecological immunology: assumed trade-offs and methodological issues

2012 ◽  
Vol 103 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Moreno-García ◽  
A. Córdoba-Aguilar ◽  
R. Condé ◽  
H. Lanz-Mendoza
Keyword(s):  
Nitric Oxide ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Nitric Oxide Production ◽  
Ecological Immunology ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Phenoloxidase Activity ◽  
Capsule Formation ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Physiologically Based ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractThe field of ecological immunology currently relies on using a number of immune effectors or markers. These markers are usually used to infer ecological trade-offs (via conflicts in resource allocation), though physiological nature of these markers remains elusive. Here, we review markers frequently used in insect evolutionary ecology research: cuticle darkening, haemocyte density, nodule/capsule formation, phagocytosis and encapsulation/melanization via use of nylon filaments and beads, phenoloxidase activity, nitric oxide production, lysozyme and antimicrobial peptide production. We also provide physiologically based information that may shed light on the probable trade-offs inferred when these markers are used. In addition, we provide a number of methodological suggestions to improve immune marker assessment.

scholarly journals Genetic approaches in comparative and evolutionary physiology

2015 ◽  
Vol 309 (3) ◽  
pp. R197-R214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay F. Storz ◽  
Jamie T. Bridgham ◽  
Scott A. Kelly ◽  
Theodore Garland
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Genetics ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Adaptive Significance ◽  
Physiological Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Physiology ◽  
Trait Variation ◽  
Polygenic Inheritance ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
In The Wild

Whole animal physiological performance is highly polygenic and highly plastic, and the same is generally true for the many subordinate traits that underlie performance capacities. Quantitative genetics, therefore, provides an appropriate framework for the analysis of physiological phenotypes and can be used to infer the microevolutionary processes that have shaped patterns of trait variation within and among species. In cases where specific genes are known to contribute to variation in physiological traits, analyses of intraspecific polymorphism and interspecific divergence can reveal molecular mechanisms of functional evolution and can provide insights into the possible adaptive significance of observed sequence changes. In this review, we explain how the tools and theory of quantitative genetics, population genetics, and molecular evolution can inform our understanding of mechanism and process in physiological evolution. For example, lab-based studies of polygenic inheritance can be integrated with field-based studies of trait variation and survivorship to measure selection in the wild, thereby providing direct insights into the adaptive significance of physiological variation. Analyses of quantitative genetic variation in selection experiments can be used to probe interrelationships among traits and the genetic basis of physiological trade-offs and constraints. We review approaches for characterizing the genetic architecture of physiological traits, including linkage mapping and association mapping, and systems approaches for dissecting intermediary steps in the chain of causation between genotype and phenotype. We also discuss the promise and limitations of population genomic approaches for inferring adaptation at specific loci. We end by highlighting the role of organismal physiology in the functional synthesis of evolutionary biology.

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