Experimental evidence of rapid heritable adaptation in the absence of initial standing genetic variation

Abstract

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Revisiting the growth rate hypothesis: Towards a holistic stoichiometric understanding of growth

“…Additionally, genotypes within or among a species may have evolved different nutrient uptake or life‐history strategies affecting nutrient allocation patterns. Since growth is a labile trait (Lande, 2014 ) that can evolve in response to environmental conditions such as nutrient availability (Frisch et al, 2014 ; Lemmen et al, 2022a ), comparisons of genotypes collected from different environments may also obscure predictions of the GRH if not taken into account.…”

“…Organisms can adapt to biogeochemical changes over time through evolved differences in growth rate and nutrient use efficiencies (Frisch et al, 2014 ; Jeyasingh et al, 2009 ; Lemmen et al, 2022a ). For example, the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus was selected for rapid growth under high P supply and developed faster growth and higher P content, consistent with the GRH (Lemmen et al, 2022b ).…”

Rapid turnover of a pea aphid superclone mediated by thermal endurance in central Chile

“…[73] for the cotton aphid A. gossypii , in which only one of the two overrepresented genotypes was prevalent (greater than 90%) in insecticide sprayed cotton-producing regions of west and central Africa, despite the equivalent or even higher reproductive performance of a second clone on non-sprayed fields. Overall, our results show that asexual populations can thrive over large areas under favourable conditions on ecological timescales and may even be able to adapt to environmental changes [11,12,74,75]. However, asexuality and clonal reproduction suffer from a lack of adaptability on an evolutionary scale, potentially leading to the extinction of entire asexual populations and the collapse of their genetic heritage.…”

“…On an ecological timescale, migrational, behavioural, or physiological adjustments may facilitate the exposed individuals and populations to cope with the environmental change for a while [9,10]. In an evolutionary context, there is increasing evidence of evolutionary change without standing genetic variation by epigenetic factors in asexual populations, including asexual aphids [11,12]. From a classical point of view, though, an increased rate of environmental change would be difficult, at least in principle, for asexual populations to evolve adaptive responses quickly enough [2,8].…”

Variation in heat shock protein 40 kDa relates to divergence in thermotolerance among cryptic rotifer species

“…Prior to its delimitation into four species, the Brachionus calyciflorus species complex had been studied with regard to molecular phylogeny 23 – 25 , co-existence 26 , life history characteristics 27 , phylogeography 28 , 29 , and reproductive isolation 28 – 30 . More recent studies, which have taken into account the new species classification, focus on ecological processes, e.g., niche differentiation 31 , life history traits 32 , adaptation and the underlying regulatory mechanisms 33 – 35 , as well as on the robustness of species boundaries through hybridisation experiments 6 , 7 . These studies are of great importance to understand not only how these species have diverged, but also which of their adaptations are critical for the co-existence or exclusion of certain species in a specific environment.…”