Adaptive introgression enables evolutionary rescue from extreme environmental pollution

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 364 (6439) ◽  
pp. 455-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elias M. Oziolor ◽  
Noah M. Reid ◽  
Sivan Yair ◽  
Kristin M. Lee ◽  
Sarah Guberman VerPloeg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Pollution Level ◽  
Selection Coefficient ◽  
Fundulus Grandis ◽  
Adaptive Introgression ◽  
Aryl Hydrocarbon ◽  
Evolutionary Rescue ◽  
Recent Selection

Radical environmental change that provokes population decline can impose constraints on the sources of genetic variation that may enable evolutionary rescue. Adaptive toxicant resistance has rapidly evolved in Gulf killifish (Fundulus grandis) that occupy polluted habitats. We show that resistance scales with pollution level and negatively correlates with inducibility of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) signaling. Loci with the strongest signatures of recent selection harbor genes regulating AHR signaling. Two of these loci introgressed recently (18 to 34 generations ago) from Atlantic killifish (F. heteroclitus). One introgressed locus contains a deletion in AHR that confers a large adaptive advantage [selection coefficient (s) = 0.8]. Given the limited migration of killifish, recent adaptive introgression was likely mediated by human-assisted transport. We suggest that interspecies connectivity may be an important source of adaptive variation during extreme environmental change.

scholarly journals Genomic signatures of evolutionary rescue in bats surviving white-nose syndrome

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Gignoux-Wolfsohn ◽  
Malin L. Pinsky ◽  
Kathleen Kerwin ◽  
Carl Herzog ◽  
MacKenzie Hall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Genomic Signatures ◽  
White Nose Syndrome ◽  
Multiple Loci ◽  
Evolutionary Rescue ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Soft Selection ◽  
Little Brown Bat

AbstractRapid evolution of advantageous traits following abrupt environmental change can help populations grow and avoid extinction through evolutionary rescue. Here, we provide the first genetic evidence for rapid evolution in bat populations affected by white-nose syndrome (WNS). By comparing genetic samples from before and after little brown bat populations were decimated by WNS, we identified signatures of soft selection on standing genetic variation. This selection occurred at multiple loci in genes linked to hibernation behavior rather than immune function, suggesting that differences in hibernation strategy have allowed these bats to survive infection with WNS. Through these findings, we suggest that evolutionary rescue can be a conservationrelevant process even in slowly reproducing taxa threatened with extinction.

scholarly journals Fragmentation helps evolutionary rescue in highly connected habitats

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Tomasini ◽  
Stephan Peischl
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Gene Flow ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Structured Populations ◽  
Adaptive Introgression ◽  
Spatially Structured Populations ◽  
Species Survival ◽  
Evolutionary Rescue ◽  
The Face ◽  
Population Sizes

AbstractGenetic variation and population sizes are critical factors for successful adaptation to novel environmental conditions. Gene flow between sub-populations is a potent mechanism to provide such variation and can hence facilitate adaption, for instance by increasing genetic variation or via adaptive introgression. On the other hand, if gene flow between different habitats is too strong, locally beneficial alleles may not be able to establish permanently. In the context of evolutionary rescue, intermediate levels of gene flow are therefore often optimal for maximizing a species chance for survival in meta-populations without spatial structure. To which extent and under which conditions gene flow facilitates or hinders evolutionary rescue in spatially structured populations remains unresolved. We address this question and show that detrimental effects of gene flow can become negligible in spatially structured populations subject to a gradual deterioration of environmental conditions. If the number of sub-populations is sufficiently large, we find a positive relationship between the amount of gene flow and the survival chance of the population. A counter-intuitive conclusion is that increased fragmentation can facilitate species survival in the face of severe environmental change if migration is common but limited to neighboring sub-populations.

scholarly journals Evolutionary rescue: an emerging focus at the intersection between ecology and evolution

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1610) ◽  
pp. 20120404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gonzalez ◽  
Ophélie Ronce ◽  
Regis Ferriere ◽  
Michael E. Hochberg
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Relative Fitness ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Practical Concern ◽  
Evolutionary Rescue ◽  
Declining Populations ◽  
Short Time

There is concern that the rate of environmental change is now exceeding the capacity of many populations to adapt. Mitigation of biodiversity loss requires science that integrates both ecological and evolutionary responses of populations and communities to rapid environmental change, and can identify the conditions that allow the recovery of declining populations. This special issue focuses on evolutionary rescue (ER), the idea that evolution might occur sufficiently fast to arrest population decline and allow population recovery before extinction ensues. ER emphasizes a shift to a perspective on evolutionary dynamics that focuses on short time-scales, genetic variants of large effects and absolute rather than relative fitness. The contributions in this issue reflect the state of field; the articles address the latest conceptual developments, and report novel theoretical and experimental results. The examples in this issue demonstrate that this burgeoning area of research can inform problems of direct practical concern, such as the conservation of biodiversity, adaptation to climate change and the emergence of infectious disease. The continued development of research on ER will be necessary if we are to understand the extent to which anthropogenic global change will reduce the Earth's biodiversity.

scholarly journals When do shifts in trait dynamics precede population declines?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaurav Baruah ◽  
Christopher F. Clements ◽  
Fréderic Guillaume ◽  
Arpat Ozgul
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Warning Signal ◽  
Dynamic Responses ◽  
Population Declines ◽  
Population Responses ◽  
Early Warning Signal ◽  
Related Trait

AbstractPredicting population responses to environmental change is an on-going challenge in ecology. Studies investigating the links between fitness-related phenotypic traits and demography have shown that trait dynamic responses to environmental change can sometimes precede population dynamic responses, and thus, can be used as an early warning signal. However, it is still unknown under which ecological and evolutionary circumstances, shifts in fitness-related traits can precede population responses to environmental perturbation. Here, we take a trait-based demographic approach and investigate both trait and population dynamics in a density-regulated population in response to a gradual change in the environment. We explore the ecological and evolutionary constraints under which shifts in a fitness-related trait precedes a decline in population size. We show both analytically and with experimental data that under medium-to-slow rate of environmental change, shifts in trait value can precede population decline. We further show the positive influence of environmental predictability, average reproductive rate, plasticity, and genetic variation on shifts in trait dynamics preceding potential population declines. These results still hold under non-constant genetic variation and environmental stochasticity. Our study highlights ecological and evolutionary circumstances under which a fitness-related trait can be used as an early warning signal of an impending population decline.

scholarly journals Slower environmental change hinders adaptation from standing genetic variation

PLoS Genetics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. e1007731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago S. Guzella ◽  
Snigdhadip Dey ◽  
Ivo M. Chelo ◽  
Ania Pino-Querido ◽  
Veronica F. Pereira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Environmental Change

scholarly journals Testing for local adaptation and evolutionary potential along 1 altitudinal gradients in rainforest Drosophila: beyond laboratory estimates

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor K. O’Brien ◽  
Megan Higgie ◽  
Alan Reynolds ◽  
Ary A. Hoffmann ◽  
Jon R. Bridle
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Environmental Variation ◽  
Species Range ◽  
Altitudinal Gradients ◽  
Low Altitude ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTPredicting how species will respond to the rapid climatic changes predicted this century is an urgent task. Species Distribution Models (SDMs) use the current relationship between environmental variation and species’ abundances to predict the effect of future environmental change on their distributions. However, two common assumptions of SDMs are likely to be violated in many cases: (1) that the relationship of environment with abundance or fitness is constant throughout a species’ range and will remain so in future, and (2) that abiotic factors (e.g. temperature, humidity) determine species’ distributions. We test these assumptions by relating field abundance of the rainforest fruit fly Drosophila birchii to ecological change across gradients that include its low and high altitudinal limits. We then test how such ecological variation affects the fitness of 35 D. birchii families transplanted in 591 cages to sites along two altitudinal gradients, to determine whether genetic variation in fitness responses could facilitate future adaptation to environmental change. Overall, field abundance was highest at cooler, high altitude sites, and declined towards warmer, low altitude sites. By contrast, cage fitness (productivity) increased towards warmer, lower altitude sites, suggesting that biotic interactions (absent from cages) drive ecological limits at warmer margins. In addition, the relationship between environmental variation and abundance varied significantly among gradients, indicating divergence in ecological niche across the species’ range. However, there was no evidence for local adaptation within gradients, despite greater productivity of high altitude than low altitude populations when families were reared under laboratory conditions. Families also responded similarly to transplantation along gradients, providing no evidence for fitness trade-offs that would favour local adaptation. These findings highlight the importance of (1) measuring genetic variation of key traits under ecologically relevant conditions, and (2) considering the effect of biotic interactions when predicting species’ responses to environmental change.

Prevalence and Adaptive Impact of Introgression

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel B. Edelman ◽  
James Mallet
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Adaptive Evolution ◽  
Genetic Variants ◽  
Genomic Data ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Adaptive Introgression ◽  
Changing Environments ◽  
Potential Benefits

Alleles that introgressed between species can influence the evolutionary and ecological fate of species exposed to novel environments. Hybrid offspring of different species are often unfit, and yet it has long been argued that introgression can be a potent force in evolution, especially in plants. Over the last two decades, genomic data have increasingly provided evidence that introgression is a critically important source of genetic variation and that this additional variation can be useful in adaptive evolution of both animals and plants. Here, we review factors that influence the probability that foreign genetic variants provide long-term benefits (so-called adaptive introgression) and discuss their potential benefits. We find that introgression plays an important role in adaptive evolution, particularly when a species is far from its fitness optimum, such as when they expand their range or are subject to changing environments. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Genetics, Volume 55 is November 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals Considering adaptive genetic variation in climate change vulnerability assessment reduces species range loss projections

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (21) ◽  
pp. 10418-10423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orly Razgour ◽  
Brenna Forester ◽  
John B. Taggart ◽  
Michaël Bekaert ◽  
Javier Juste ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Landscape Connectivity ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Adaptive Genetic Variation ◽  
Climate Change Vulnerability ◽  
Species Vulnerability ◽  
Evolutionary Rescue

Local adaptations can determine the potential of populations to respond to environmental changes, yet adaptive genetic variation is commonly ignored in models forecasting species vulnerability and biogeographical shifts under future climate change. Here we integrate genomic and ecological modeling approaches to identify genetic adaptations associated with climate in two cryptic forest bats. We then incorporate this information directly into forecasts of range changes under future climate change and assessment of population persistence through the spread of climate-adaptive genetic variation (evolutionary rescue potential). Considering climate-adaptive potential reduced range loss projections, suggesting that failure to account for intraspecific variability can result in overestimation of future losses. On the other hand, range overlap between species was projected to increase, indicating that interspecific competition is likely to play an important role in limiting species’ future ranges. We show that although evolutionary rescue is possible, it depends on a population’s adaptive capacity and connectivity. Hence, we stress the importance of incorporating genomic data and landscape connectivity in climate change vulnerability assessments and conservation management.

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